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PL AUERS GUIDE TO ELECTRONIC SCIENCE FICTION GAMES 




































































Only ATARI makes the games the world wants most. 
Games that are innovative. Intense. Incredibly involving. 
And totally original. 

In 1980 ATARI invaded the minds of millions with 
Space Invaders? It went on to become the single most 
popular video game in the world and thereby launched 
the space age game category. 

Today ATARI Missile Command™ and Asteroids'" are 
the fastest selling home video games in the country. And 
I judging by its current success in the 


III judgii 


ATARI 

THERE'S NO 

COMPARING IT WITH ANY 
OTHER VIDEO GAME. 




































































CHANGE THIS 




TO THIS 


Stores 10 video game 

controllers and instruction 
booklets. 


WITH THIS 


MODELS TO FIT: 

ATARI BY ATARI, INC. 
ODYSSEY BY MAGNAVOX 
INTELLIVISION BY 
MATTEL ELECTRONICS 




Call Toll Free: 1- (800) 521-0620 
Michigan call Collect (313) 792-5966 



I t should really come as no surprise to 
arcaders that the tremendous popular¬ 
ity of electronic gaming has attracted the 
attention of a few militant spoilsports. It 
always seems to happen that way. 
Whenever something new and exciting 
crops up—whether it's rock music, com¬ 
ic books or even high heel shoes—It's a 
safe bet that a few grumps will try to take 
the fun out of it for the rest of us. 

It would be easy to refute the often-ri- 
diculous charges such Scrooges level at 
our hobby, but let's leave that particular 
defense for another time. It's a lot more 
fun to accentuate the positive and talk 
about all the good things electronic ar¬ 
caders derive from participation in this 
high tech pastime. 

The most obvious benefit, of course, is 
that the games are a blast to play. Elec¬ 
tronic games, whether played at home 
or in amusement centers, are pure enter¬ 
tainment. And in this era of $5 movies, 
$20 steaks and $ 100 Broadway shows, 
s more fun for the buck 
ist other types of recreation. 

tronic gaming brings families closer 
together. How many other things can 
mother and son, father and daughter, 
enjoy on an equal basis? Most participa¬ 
tion sports give such a tremendous ad¬ 
vantage to bigger and stronger players 
that the idea of, for instance, a family 
game of tennis or golf becomes an exer¬ 
cise in boredom for the grown-ups and a 


The Joys of 
Electronic Gaming 

By Frank Laney, Jr. 


ading of 


game tournaments have proven again 
and again, there’s absolutely no reason 
why an 18-year-old arcader can't whip 
the tail of a 35-year-old Electronic 
Games editor at Asteroids or Pac- 

Arcade games improve hand-eye co¬ 
ordination to a remarkable extent. That's 
why some therapists have begun using 
them to aid in the rehabilitation of the 
handicapped. 

On the other hand, the more complex 
electronic games played on personal 
computers definitely sharpen the mental 
faculties. They present people with non¬ 
threatening situations that call for quick 
thinking and carefully planned strategy. 
The mind is like any muscle; it gets flabby 

Which brings up the point that ar- 
cading, unlike so many other popular 
pastimes, is active rather than passive. 
TV, radio, movies and such just wash 
over us while we sit there quietly. 
There's nothing wrong with that, of 
course, but electronic games provide 
needed variety by giving us something 


The act of playing an electronic game 
has a beneficial effect on the mental state 
of the arcader, too. Those inclined to¬ 
ward Freudian psychology might ex¬ 
press this in terms of catharsis. That is, 
that blasting space debris and zapping 
aliens gives a healthful release of tension 
and an outlet for the aggressive instincts 
most of us have at least to some extent. 
Some of the more mystically inclined, on 
the other hand, have compared playing 
electronic games to the peace and calm 

mantra. While the contest is underway, 
the player becomes temporarily released 
from the mundane world and is propelled 
into a simpler and more easily compre¬ 
hended one. This, it is claimed, may free 
our minds for contemplation on the cos- 

vious: electronic games are certainly 
more healthful and less harmful than a 
good many of the other activities that oc¬ 
cupy people's leisure hours. No one is 
advocating that folks become mono- 
maniacal arcaders, forever linked to the 
almighty machines in some kind of weird 
symbiotic relationship. Moderation is the 
watchword here as it should be with 
everything else. Yet there's little doubt 
that the hobby of electronic arcading ac¬ 
tually gives players something more than 
just the obvious rousing good time. 

Go away spoilsports, you're interrupt¬ 
ing our game. 




VCRs Meet Videogrames 

Here's a way for owners of video 
recorders to get more out of their video- 

1. Run a line from the audio output of 
the video recorder to the input of your 

2. Attach the RF modulator to the 
video recorder, rather than the televi¬ 
sion. (Don't forget to set the switch to 

3. Turn on the television, video cas¬ 
sette recorder and stereo. All sounds will 
now be channeled through the stereo, 
giving it a more realistic effect. 

If you do not have a video recorder, 
but your television set has audio outputs, 
then the RF modulator can be attached 

One advantage of having the game 
connected to the VCR is that you can 
record games. This is especially helpful 
when playing Activision games where 
the company asks for a picture of the 

Lighting conditions may not always be 
right for taking the required picture. By 
recording the game, you can take the 
picture whenever you like. 

I've recorded some games as an ex¬ 
periment after hooking the game up to 
my stereo. I call this audio cassette tape 
"Atari's Greatest Hits." 

Leonard Herman 
Roselle Park, NJ. 


A Helpful Suggestion 

I enjoyed your first issue and am look¬ 
ing forward to the next one. I would like 
to suggest a minor improvement. How 
about including in the reviews of all 


games and cartridges the minimum and 
maximum number of players? For exam¬ 
ple, Atari's Warlords would be listed as 
"(1-4)". This would inform the reader if 
the game is for solitaire, two or more 
people, or any combination. 

Lawrence Horne 
Marlton, N.J. 


and I was glad to see that I hadn't missed 

Now for my question: Can you find 
out whether Atari will ever come out 
with a Battlezone cartridge for its VCS? 
Also, could they make a contract with 
Centuri for the rights to Eagle and 
Phoenix? 


Ed: Good Ideal We always try to 
Include this information in every re¬ 
view, but maybe we can begin 
breaking it out, since number of par¬ 
ticipants is a major consideration for 
many gamers when picking a new 
program. 


Overseas Arcading 

As you can see from my address, 1 am 
an English boy. 1 bought Electronic 
Games while I was on vacation and 
found it fascinating. 

Please, couldyou inform me if it would 
be possible to receive Electronic Games 
in England. I—and a couple of my 
friends here—would be very pleased. 

Adrian Oldfield 
Stoke-on-Trent, 

Ed: Good news, Adrian—and the 
many other readers who've asked 
about subscriptions. You'll find the 
details elsewhere In this issue. 


Some Game Proposals 

I was so happy to see your magazine 
on the newsstand. The first thing I did 
was to check to see what issue it was, 


Kevin Beardmore 
Marietta, Ohio 

Ed: Like most manufacturers. 
Atari Is reluctant to tip its hand too 
far ahead. Still, some form of Battle- 
zone,' perhaps for the new super¬ 
videogame and/or the 400/800 
sounds like a reasonable possibility. 
Given the popularity of Centuri's 
two coin-op titles, someone will pro¬ 
bably license them for home arcad- 


A.N.A.L.O.G., meanwhile, a 
magazine and game software pub¬ 
lisher devoted exclusively to the 
Atari computers, is reportedly 
already working on a version of 
BATTLEZONE for the 400/800. 

continued on page 61 


Readers Score with UFO' 













By Bill Kunkel 

S ome videogames are the result of a 
happy accident. Unexpected inspir¬ 
ation leads a designer in a direction he'd 
never previously explored. Other times, 
however, the games are the product of a 
predetermined concept, with the de¬ 
signer acting as the instrument to trans¬ 
form the idea into a viable gaming ex- 

Pre-planning gets the credit for Quest 
For The Rings, the most recent offering 
from the Odyssey braintrust. Taking a 
long, hard look at their programmable 
system, the Knoxville, Tenn., gamesmen 
decided the element that most obviously 
separated it from the competition is the 
monoplanar keyboard. This alpha-nu¬ 
meric data input device gives the 0 2 a po¬ 
tential for programmability previously 
available only with microcomputer 
systems. The key word, though, was 
"potential". Aside from using that 
keyboard to choose the number of 
players and game option, none of the 
then-existing software made much use 
of this hardware "edge." 

The release of UFO began to turn 


Meet Odyssey's Lords 
of the Rings 

things around. During each 'UFO' play 
session, the machine records the high 
score at the bottom of the playfield. The 
arcader's name can be typed in using the 
keyboard — a classic coin-op feature 
that had never before appeared on a 
home videogame. 

Still, it was obvious that much more 
could be done with the keyboard. On 
that basis, Odyssey executives decided 
that the company would produce a tri¬ 
logy of game programs of a much more 
sophisticated order, programs that 
would combine computer-level game 


content with videogame-quality audio 
and graphics. The first offering would 
reflect the tremendous interest in adven¬ 
ture and fantasy gaming inspired by 
D&D. The second entry would be a clas¬ 
sic war game invoving air, naval and 
undersea combat. For the final program, 
Odyssey chose the topic of high finance, 
along the lines of Monopoly and Ac¬ 
quire. Finally, the games would add a 
further bit of texture by having action 
take place not only on the TV screen, but 
on special game boards packed with the 
cartridges. 

To produce these revolutionary pro¬ 
grams, Odyssey turned to two men with 
whose work they were intimately famil¬ 
iar. The videogame portion of the assign¬ 
ment went to Ed Averette, Jr., a veteran 
0 2 game designer responsible for many 
of the company's best cartridges. The 
other design element — including the 
game boards and special mylar sheets to 
cover the 0 2 keyboard, simplifying input 
instructions — landed on the desk of 
Steve Laner. Ironically this company 
veteran designed the plastic screen over¬ 
lays for the original Odyssey, the very 
first videogame system. 

Steve and Ed had worked in tandem 
before, but for this grand project they 
pulled out all the stops. The major chal¬ 
lenge was the successful integration of 
board and videogame. 

"I'm a games person," Laner cheerfuF 
ly admits, "and naturally we're always 
looking for new ways to present elec¬ 
tronic games. What we did with this 
game was to create a "loop" effect be¬ 
tween the board and the computer 
elements. What happens in the board- 
game portion affects what occurs on the 
screen, and back and forth, creating a 
real synergy between the two." 

"So far,"-Laner admits, "most of 
what's been done in this field is either an 
adaptation of an existing coin-op or a 
sports simulation. But I always felt we 
could get way beyond that." 

Ed Averette, Jr. agrees. "We were 
floundering around, looking for a direc¬ 
tion. In the combination of boardgame 
and videogame, we've found it." 






The team began work with a broad 
outline of the project. After toiling for 
nearly half a year on fine tuning, they 
had developed Laner's "loop", the inter¬ 
action between board and playfield that 
feeds upon itself to create a brand new 
game experience, an electronic hybrid of 
the computer age. 

In 'Quest for the Rings', a pair of ad¬ 
venturers journey over the countiyside 
in search of the Ringmaster's ten mystical 
rings. When a dungeon is reached on 
the board, the action transports to the 
videogame screen, where gamers — in 
their roles as wizards, warriors, phan¬ 
toms or changelings — do battle with 
realistically-rendered monsters and fire¬ 
breathing dragons in hopes of retrieving 
a magic ring. Averette designed a series 
of dungeons, each visually distinct, and 
his bevy of beasties is a triumph of com¬ 
puter animation. 

Averette, who sometimes works with 
his wife Linda, wanted to produce a real 
senses-stunning videogame with graph¬ 
ics equal to, or better than, anything 
playable on even the more sophisticated 
computers. "In this game," he says with 

more than just a roll of the dice." 

As previously mentioned. 'Quest for 
the Rings' was planned asthe first part of 
a trilogy of classic game themes. Next up 
will be Conquest of the World, which 
will do for military strategy contests what 
'Quest' did with the fantasy adventure. 
Again wedding board and videogame 
components, actual tactical combat will 
be played out on screen, with the warr¬ 
ing factions employing various combina¬ 
tions of tanks, battleships and sub¬ 
marines. 

The last of the three games, tentatively 
titled The Great Wall Street Fortune 


Hunt, is one of the most intriguing 
"money" games ever designed. Players 
participate in the Stock Exchange, buy¬ 
ing selling and tradingjust as investors do 
on Wall Street. The video portion of the 
contest consists of a playfield sectioned 
into three horizontal segments. Across 

listing prices and similar data. A news 
wire clacks along the middle portion of 
the playfield meanwhile, reporting news 
events - "Unrest in the Middle East. 
"Merger reported..." and such — that 
might have an impact on the chamel¬ 
eonlike market. The bottom "window" 
monitors the gamer's personal portfolio. 
The machine constantly updates the 
holdings. 


"We even brought in major consul¬ 
tants from the world of high finance to 
insure that this game is as realistic as 
possible," says Steve Laner. 

The advent of these sophisticated en¬ 
tries signals a major new direction for the 
Odyssey 2 system. While the company 
will continue to offer arcade programs, 
as well as products designed specifically 
for young arcaders, the debut of this 
trilogy is bringing advanced simulation 
to programmable videogame systems 
for the first time. Their success or failure 
will have much to do with shaping the 
future of home videogame software for 


















ATARI 400 


H aving tasted unqualified success 
with its entries in the coin-op and 
programmable videogame markets, 

toward the logical next step: a true home 
computer/gaming system. The new 
product would be infinitely more flexible 
than their existing machines, because of 
its highly programmable nature. 

Instead of producing only one system. 
Atari developed a pair of variations on a 
single theme, each pegged to a particular 
price-point: the Atari 400 and 800. 

This month's "Test Lab" focuses on 
the smaller, and less expensive, of the 
two. It's the system that is rapidly becom¬ 
ing the darling of the computer gamers, 
the Atari 400. 

The unit is a simple integrated key¬ 
board/CPU configuration with a single 
internal slot that accepts Atari's com¬ 
puter ROM cartridges. The other external 
features include four ports for standard 
Atari paddle or joystick controllers, a TV 
output with RF modulator and a multi¬ 
purpose interface that makes it simple to 
attach peripherals. 

The keyboard is monoplanar. It uses 
57 touch-actuated switches on a flat 
board. It has no moving parts and is 
sealed to resist contamination. Transla¬ 
tion: it ignores moderate amounts of ice 
cream, coffee and other substances that 



MUSIC COMPOSER 

are ordinarily fatal to computers. The 
computer makes a click to signify a suc¬ 
cessful keystroke. While this sort of data 


input board is quite adequate for the 
needs of computer gamers, it will almost 
certainly discourage anyone from at¬ 
tempting to do any serious program- 

The 400 also features a quartet of 
function switches and an on/off in¬ 
dicator light at the far right end of the 
console. These buttons govern system 

of course, used primarily when playing 

Themulti-functionportisa 13-pincon- 
nector, located next to the power switch 
on the right side of the machine. 
Through this port, the Atari 400 can ac- 


■ cess a printer, cassette player, disk 
I drive or an Atari 850 interface 
I module. (The 850 is used much like 

I such peripherals at once.) Actually, 
I the machine can access either two 
I disk drives or a disk/cassette team- 
I up through a simple daisy-chaining 
I procedure: The primary drive is at- 
I tached to the port, and the cassette 
I or second drive is then plugged into 
I the back of the first disk. This is 
I especially useful when transferring 
I programs from tape to disk. 

I Since the Atari 400 falls into the 
I category of computers oriented for 
I use in the home, the manufacturer 
I had no intention of providing for 
I memory expansion beyond the 
I now-standard 16K. Several com- 
I panies are already offering upgrade 
I boards that will take it up to 32K. 
I Therefore, should you desire to put 
I more byte in you 400, a Phillips 
I screwdriver attached to a capable 
I arm can easily strip it down to board 
I level in less than 10 minutes and do 
H the conversion. 

H Once inside the housing, there 

■ are only 30 IC’s, including the 6502 
A CPU, various I/O controllers and 

memory. The chips are distributed 
among a CPU card (closest to the 
rear), a 16K-byte memory card, and 
a motherboard to accomodate the 
aforementioned PC boards and the 
I/O circuitry. 

At this level, I have two comments: 

I. The CPU and memory boards 
should be keyed to prevent incorrect in¬ 
sertion. Horror stories about upgrade 
boards installed backwards are legend- 

^2. The speaker that produces the aud¬ 
ible beep when typing and the CLOAD 
indicator could be mounted more se¬ 
curely. It is positively unnerving to hear it 
rattling around inside the console. 

As a total system, the Atari 400 is most 
impressive for its price, $399, suggested 













































iiliii® 






Castle Park: 
Game Parlor 
First Class 


E xperienced arcaders — those who 
can recall the bad old days of dingy, 
dirty and faintly disreputable establish¬ 
ments — may think they're dreaming if 
they’re ever lucky enough to visit Castle 
Park in Riverside, Cal. Passing through 
the portals of this beautiful castle into a 
hall filled with the sights and sounds of 
300 coin-op wonder-machines is an 
instant voyage to videogaming's version 
of Fantasy Island, 

This 17,000-sq. ft. amusement center 
presents its wares with rare style, symbo¬ 
lized by the three Austrian crystal chan¬ 
deliers that bathe the playing areas with 
glittering light. 

While patrons will always find the 
newest commercial arcading hits here, 
Castle Park pays homage to the hobby's 
past with a selection of exremely rare col¬ 
lector's pieces that date from the earliest 
penny arcades. And gamers who want 
something just a trifle more athletic can 
chose from among four electronically 
enhanced miniature golf courses. 

The more prominent attractions aside, 
manager Tom Guagliardo has endowed 
Castle Park with distinctive little flourishes 
that raise it above the run-of-the-mill 
amusement center. Little scenes, like a 
tiny Darth Vader dueling with an equally 
miniscule Ben Kenobi atop a Warlords, 
are eveiywhere. Multi-colored chaser 
lights, animated racehorses and similar 



sights keep gamers goggle-eyed when fixture hanging from the ceiling. An ex- 
they're not busy saving the Earth from otic canopy covers the line-up of pinball 
some form of extraterrestrial attack. machines. A Leggo-slyle stairway leads 

Games are grouped according to type down into a "foosball" pit. There's even 
in special areas around the split-level an area exclusively devoted to rifle- 
layout. The billiard room is highlighted shooting coin-ops. 
by an enormous gold crown and light Videogames are, of course, the main 









wait for a favorite machine. 

Guagliardo has gone to considerable 


attraction. It's hard to imagine a more 
comfortable and inviting place in which 
to gobble goblins, blast asteroids and 
steer video racers through their paces. 

One thing hardcore players like is that 
the most popular titles, like Asteroids, 
are available in rows. There's seldom a 


lengths to ensure that things don’t get 
out of hand and ruin the fun-and-games 
atmosphere. Castle Park is very much a 
family arcade, an environment so 
wholesome that parents frequently drop 


their children off while they do the 
marketing. It maintains a securily staff of 
1 2 private police officers and two armed 
guards. And to prevent players from 
experiencing the frustration of popping 
a quarter into a malfunctioning game, 
Castle Park shuts down once a week for 
thorough maintenance. 

This is one place that never rests on its 
laurels, never stops expanding. Currently 
under construction at this space-age 
pleasure dome is a dungeon to serve as 
an appropriate setting for such popular 
titles as Venture (Exidy) and Wizard of 
Wor (Midway]. These and otherfantasy 
machines should feel right at home 
among the chains and dragons. 

So whatever your taste in arcade 
games, whether you like pinball 
machines, pool tables, videogames, air 
hockey or any of the other varieties of 
arcade device, they're available. 

And for arcade antiquarians, there's 
that museum. It has fun house distortion 
mirrors and even a perfectly preserved 
—and functioning — fortune telling 
machine. This 8 ft. x 3 ft. glass-enclosed 
rarity was one of the very earliest elec¬ 
tronic arcade amusements. It features an 
automaton-seer complete with a 
colorful bandana and, naturally, the 
gift of prophecy. The 11 golden oldies, 
Guagliardo maintains, often draw more 
attention than the state-of-the-art units. 

It's a safe bet, however, that Guagliar¬ 
do will have no need of a fortune telling 
machine to ascertain Castle Park's 























Q&A 


By the Game Doctor 


The Doctor is in. Last issue's offer of a 
free Electronic Games t-shirt to the 
reader who sends in the best question 
each isssue is already starting to bear 
fruit. The Doctor's mailbox is getting 
pleasingly full. This is your chance to be 
the envy of all the other arcaders inyour 
social set — and at the same time get the 
answer to whatever electronic gaming 
problem is bugging you. 

Let's lead off this month's questions 
with the shirt-winning submission from 
Robert Webber of Glendale, N.Y. 


Q: Why do some videogame com¬ 
panies like Atari make systems with 
detachable controllers, while others 
like Odyssey and Mattel hard-wire 
them right Into the console. What 
are the advantages and disadvan¬ 
tages of each? |From Robert Web¬ 
ber, Glendale, N.Y.) 

A: Since the Atari Video Computer 
System (VCS) can use four different con¬ 
trollers —joystick, paddle, keypad and 
steering-wheel paddle—to play games, 
a method utilizing interchangeable plug¬ 
ins is an obvious necessity. 

All games designed for the other two 
major videogame systems, on the other 
hand, share the use of the same input de¬ 
vice. Since bending the prongs of the 
multi-pin plugs when pushing them into 
and pulling them out of the jacks is a 
prime source of damage to controllers, 
Odyssey and Mattel elected to perma¬ 
nently attach the controllers to the con- 

Unfortunately, plugging and unplug¬ 
ging isn't the only way to break a con¬ 
troller. Sometimes, for example, the 
centering springs on joysticks wear out 
after a lot of hard gaming. This can cause 
drifting of the on-screen image. And 
when a wired-in controller breaks, that 
means the entire system has to be crated 
up and taken or mailed to the repair shop. 

Q: In reference to your review of 
Star Raiders for the Atari 400/800,1 


am turning to you for some advice. I 
own an Apple II Plus, not an Atari, 
and I'd like to know which of the 
currently available programs for my 
computer would be most like that 
Atari spacegame? (From PhlllipRan- 
dall, Boca Raton, Fla.) 

A: The old Game Doctor went out 
and examined the pick of the Apple soft¬ 



ware orchard to find out which program 
comes closest to duplicating the action 
that has made Star Raiders an instant 
hit. The closest match, at least in my 
opinion, is Space Raiders from United 
Software of America. If it isn't the Atari 
game's long-lost twin, it's at least a kiss¬ 
ing cousin. 

Q; You explained In Electronic 
Games' first Issue how the old- 
fashioned videogames sometimes 
left an after-image on TV screens, 
because the playfields never moved 
or changed colors. When I was look¬ 
ing at some Activision games re¬ 
cently, I noticed that the company 
logo is featured on-screen for every 
one of their cartridges. The name 
"Activision" never seems to move, 
and when the rest of the playfield 
starts color-shifting, it stays white. I 
don't want any company's name 
etched permanently onto my televi¬ 


sion screen, so I’ve stopped playing 
them until I get the word from you. 
Should I be concerned? (From Ray 
Givens, Staten Island, N.Y,) 

A: Relax, Ray, it'ssafetotakethoseAc¬ 
tivision cartridges out of the closet and 
start using them again. The tiny "Activi¬ 
sion" trademark that appears on all of 
the company's playfields actually does 
change color. It just takes a little longer 
than the rest of the field to get started, 
that's all. 

But if you don't trust the Doctor, Ray, 
it's easy enough to check out for 
yourself. A few minutes after the rest of 
an Activision playfield starts to do the 
dance-of-the-colors, the trademark will 
begin its colorshifting routine as well. 

Q: My TV set has a digital channel 
selector. Sometimes when I switch 
to the "open channel" in my area, 
the videogame playfield comes In 
distorted and colorless. Other times. 
It's just fine. What can I do? (From 
Paula Watts, Shawnee, Okla.j 
A: The hang-up probably comes from 
the lack of a manual fine-tuning knob on 
yourset. Try this method: Firsttuneinthe 
channel that gives you the clearest and 
sharpest signal. Then set up the video- 
game system, insert the desired cartridge 
and switch on the game console. Finally, 
switch to the "open channel", and the 
automatic fine tuning should provide you 
with a clear, sharp picture. 

Q: I have heard recently that a 
Pac Man' type game will be avail¬ 
able soon for the Atari VCS. Is this 
true? If so, when will it be available? 
(from Cherl Robinson, Pittsburgh, 
Pa.) 

A: You heard correctly, Cheri, how¬ 
ever Atari's game will not be a "Pac 
Man type" program, but rather the ori¬ 
ginal gobbler himself. Atari went on a 
coin-op buying spree in 1981, picking up 
the lucrative home rights to such hit ar¬ 
cade games as Defender, Galaxian, 
continued on page 53 







ON YOUR MARK, 
„ GET SET* 



With new K.C. Munchkin from Odyssey 2 , 
you don't destroy your enemies, you simply eat them. 



How many Munchies can your 
Munchkin munch before your 
Munchkin's all munched out? 
Play K.C. Munchkin and see! 

It’s fun. It's exciting. It’s 
challenging. Your whole family 

A Munchkin, three Munchers 
and 12 Munchies float in a maze 
with a rotating center. The 
more Munchies your Munchkin 
munches, the more points you 
get. The more points, the faster 
the computer makes the game 
go. And the more skill you need 
to score and to keep your 
Munchkin from getting munched 
by one of the Munchers! 

The better you play, the 
greater the challenge! 

Program your own mazes. 

Use the Odyssey! keyboard... 
there's virtually no limit to the 
number of mazes you can create. 
There are even invisible mazes 
for when you’re ready to turn pro. 

Choose from more than 
40 arcade, sports, education and 
new Master Strategy™ games, 
from Odyssey 2 . They're waiting 
for you now at your video games 
or Odyssey 2 dealer. 

Odyssey 2 ... video game fun, 
computer keyboard challenge. 
All for the price of an ordinary 




The excitement of a game. 
The mind of a computer. 



















YOUR BEST BUY DECIDE 

IN VIDEO GAMES? FOR YOURSELF 



priced system; another popular 
brand offers a keyboard, but only at 
a very high extra cost. 

Don't overlook the hand-control 
joysticks, either. Odyssey 2 joysticks are 
excellent in their smooth, easy 
operation. 

They also have eight slotted control 
positions so you always know exactly 
in which position you'll be going 
when you push the joystick. 

And, to emphasize again, 

Odyssey 2 comes complete with the 
hand controls and keyboard for 
playing all available cartridges. 

Some competitive games require you 
to purchase additional sets of controls 
to play some of their games! 
































































electronic 



... And enjoy previews of all the newest, best, most 
challenging games! Reviews of the latesf 
equipment—from your point of view as a player! 
Valuable gaming stategy that can make you a 
better player! Guided tours of the most exciting 
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A DECADE OF 

VIDEO 


A Decade of 
Programmable 
Videogames 


PROGRAMMABLE 

GAMES 


could grasp instantly. Completely revers¬ 
ing his field, Bushnell plunged into the 
development of a much simpler pro¬ 
gram, a video version of ping pong. 

Half a continent away, Ralph Baer 
had already started work on what 
considered to 
obvious idea. 


By 1971 the Magnavox Odyssey— 
le world's first videogame system for 
le home—was virtually completed. 

The^ Knoxville, Tenn., 
manufacturer 



"The question 


home TV sets had been bothering me 
since the early sixties," Baer recalls. "The 
fact is that even back then there were 62 
million T.V. homes—that's TV homes 
not TV sets. The idea of attaching some 
device to even a small fraction of that 
many sets was a pretty powerful incen¬ 
tive for coming up with something, any¬ 
thing, on which people might actually 
want to spend their money." 

Baer's idea came to fruition in a tiny 
cubicle at Sanders Associates, where he 
worked as division manager for equip¬ 
ment design. Baer, Bill Harrison and Bill 
Busch had the only three keys to the top- 
secret research lab known as "the game 
room." The trio played prototypes of 
video ping pong and hockey games, 
with color and FM sound produced 
through the TV speaker, as early as 
|'i 1967. (For posterity, the set they used 
was a 17-in. RCA color console.) 


started gearing up the factory for a sales 
explosion that never ignited. The Odys¬ 
sey failed to catch on for a variety of 

• Some people incorrectly believed 
that the system was only 
-Magnavox 


television sets. 

• Promotion of the device was 
inadequate 

• The unit suffered from 
Magnavox’s failure to switch 
over to solidstate technology 
when the rest of the industry 
made the change. 

Even so, Magnavox kept the faith. As 
the equipment continued to improve, 
the company issued a series of steadily 
more advanced videogames under the 
Odyssey imprint. 

Nolan Bushnell, after much labor, 
developed a video ping pong that he felt 
sure would instantly appeal to players. 
He tested the game. Pong, in a Sun¬ 
nyvale, Cal,, tavern with great success. 
He built more 'Pong' machines, and it 
immediately became the hottest coin-op 
amusement item. It was easy to under¬ 
stand, a kick to play and a marvelous 
novelty. 'Pong' uprights began turning 
up in bars, bowling alleys and candy 
stores as well as the more traditional 

It was at this point that the videogame 
concept branched off in two distinct 
directions. While Magnavox focused on 



















Soon he had signed a deal with Sears 
under the terms of which the catalogue 
giant agreed to sell Atari videogames. 
This meeting of the corporate minds was 
a landmark event, guaranteeing an in¬ 
stant nationwide audience for the home 
videogame. It also gave Bushnell a leg up 
on achieving a high level of brand recog¬ 
nition for Atari. 

Suddenly everyone from computer 
companies to candlestick makers was 
leaping aboard the videogame band¬ 
wagon. The result was a product glut. 
With so many manufacturers producing 
virtually indistinguishable products, 
Bushnell realized that now was the time 
to get in there and firmly establish Atari as 
the maker of home videogames. To do 


ing a videogame—or even six video- 
games—might be, players got bored 
sooner or later. 

Programmability was the obvious 
answer. Fairchild took the first step by 
marketing its Channel F in August 1976. 
It was the first system for which addi¬ 
tional game cartridges could be 
purchased. 

Following hard on the heels of the 
Channel F came RCA's Studio II, a fiasco 
of astonishing magnitude. Among other 
drawbacks. Studio II attempted to com¬ 
pete against the vividly colored hard¬ 
wired units—not to mention the then- 
upcoming programmables—with a black 
and white system. It soon sank beneath 
the waves of consumer indifference. 


ing hard-wired games on the market. 
Discounts ran up to 75%. It was Good¬ 
bye Mr. Chips and hello home program¬ 
mables. 

For the holiday gift-giving season that 
year, consumers could choose from a 
wide selection of sophisticated game 
machines, each imbued with a high de¬ 
gree of programming flexibility. They all 
but banished the dedicated chip systems 
to the storage closets of America. 

computer, Bally offered the Professional 
Arcade. It featured a fantastic collection 
of sports and arcade titles enhanced by 
audio-visual effects almost as good as 
those on the coin-op devices. 

At lower price points were Atari's 
Video Computer System (sold by Its old 
friends at Sears as the Tele-Arcade] and 
Magnavox's long-awaited program- 


1962 Steve Russell designs Space- 
war, the first computer video- 
game. His efforts directly inspire 
another M.l.T. man, Nolan 
Bushnell. 

1966 Ralph Baer, working at Sanders 
Associates, starts development 
of the first unit for playing 
games through a home TV set. 

1967 Baer hires Bill Harrison and Bill 
Busch, assigning them to a 
small lab called 'the game 
room.' The strange noises com¬ 
ing from behind the cubicle's 
locked door touch off some 

1971 Nolan Bushnell builds his first 
videogame, Computer Space. 

This commercial version of 
'Spacewar' proves to be far 
ahead of its time. The complex 
rules and abstract nature of the 
play mystify and intimidate 
players. It flops. 

1971 Shortly after Bushnell unveils 
'Computer Space,' another 
M.l.T. student named Bill Pitts 
produces his own 'Spacewar' 
variant. Galaxy Game is even 
less successful; the prototype 
was the only version ever put 

1972 Magna vox introduces Ralph 

(May) Baer's pioneering videogame 

system, Odyssey. America re¬ 
mains indifferent, but the po¬ 
tential is obvious to visionaries. 










mable, the Odyssey 2 . 

All three trumpeted the availability of 
dozens of game cartridges with more 
planned for later release. Cra zy Eddie, a 
leading New York electronics retailer, 
sold more videogames during the 1978 
holidays than any other type of product 

Mattel joined the programmable pa¬ 
rade in 1980 with Intellivision. Its Master 
Component was touted as the core of a 
modular computer system, but only the 
game-player has materialized thus far. 

There was something for everyone. 
Atari specialized in arcade-style games, 
Intellivision emphasized sports simula¬ 
tions, and Odyssey 2 struck a balance 
between the two other systems. 

How far has technology advanced in 
the intervening four years? The Atari 
VCS was originally created to play just 
two games. "That's correct," says 
continued on page 34 


"GREAT MOMENTS IN VIDEOGAME HISTORY 


1972 After Midway gives him the 
cold shoulder, Bushnell forms 
his own company. He names it 
Atari, the equivalent of "check¬ 
mate" in the Japanese game of 
Go. When Pong is tested at 
Andy Capp's, a Sunnyvale, 
Cal., watering hole, it breaks 
down immediately. The hitch: 
the coin box isjammed to over¬ 
flowing with quarters! 

1973 Universal Research produces 

videogame. The company does 
not go on to become the Avis 
of the new industry. 

1973 Magnavox introduces the 
Odyssey to a waiting world on 
a network TV special hosted by 
Frank Sinatra. Maybe if it had 
been Elton John. . . 

1975 The introduction of the LSI—for 
Large-Scale Integration—chip, 
opening the way for a genera¬ 
tion of ball and paddle games. 

1975 Sears agrees to handle Atari's 
home videogame products, 
giving the fledgling company 
access to a national audience. 

1976 Coleco uses the General Instru¬ 
ments super-chip to create the 
hugely popular Telstar Arcade. 
Its success inspires no fewer 
than 70 companies to market 
videogames for holiday gift- 

1976 The first programmable system. 


from Fairchild Electronics. RCA 
follows with the black-and- 
white Studio II. 

1976 Warner Communications sets a 
new record for spending on 
videogames when the con¬ 
glomerate buys Atari for S28 

1977 The historic' 'Gametronic Con¬ 
ference" brings all of videogam¬ 
ing's leading lights together for 
a meeting in San Francisco. 
Awards are bestowed upon 
Ralph Baer and Nolan Bushnell 
for their pioneering work. 

1978 A 'Pong'-weary nation turns its 
eyes toward programmability 
and finds the Atari VCS, Mag¬ 
navox Odyssey 2 and Bally Pro¬ 
fessional Arcade on store 

1978 A small Japanese pachinko 
manufacturer comes up with 
an interesting coin-op diversion 
called Space Invaders. Mid¬ 
way acquires the license to 
make the U.S. coin-op version, 
and it proves to be something 
more than a mild success. 

1980 Mattel launches its modular 
game-playing computer, Intelli¬ 
vision. The games bowl people 
over with their outstanding gra¬ 
phics, and no one really minds 
too much when the keyboard 
and other peripherals remain 


among the missing. 

Jim Levy and four ex-Atari 
designers—David Crane, Larry 
Kaplan, Alan Miller and Bob 
Whitehead—form Activision, 
the world's first videogame 
software company. Not sur¬ 
prisingly, the company immed¬ 
iately gives game designers a lot 
more recognition by crediting 
them on the cartridge pack¬ 
ages. 

Atari introduces Asteroids to 
commercial arcades. Its use of 
the vector-scan graphics sys¬ 
tem developed by Cinema-tron- 
ics/Electrohome its non-linear 
play action. The arrival of this 
Quadrascan system, albeit only 
in black and white, signals 
another push forward in game 

AtarPenters the home com 


puter field with the 400/800 
system—and a great space 
game called Star Raiders. 

1981 An influx of female arcaders 
makes this the year of Pac- 
Man. 


1981 Electronic Games, the first 
magazine exclusively devoted 
to arcading, distributes its first 


1981 ColorQuadrascanarrives.Atari 
produces Tempest, and Sega/ 
Gremlin offers Space Fury. 





jNIW" 





Rechargeable Batterles/General Elec¬ 
tric/Suggested retail prices: Mini-Charger 
(BC-3J AA, $ 13.63; C & D. S 14.88: 
9-volt, SI4.37; Double-Charger |BC-2). 
S6.38 (module and batteries separate); 
AA. $9.25; C&D, $10.50; 9-volt, $9.99. 

As owners of battery-operated hand¬ 
held and stand-alone electronic games 
can certainly attest, those entertaining 
bundles of beeps, boops and bright lights 
can chow down on power cells with the 
voraciousness of a killer shrew. 



A possible alternative is available from 
General Electric in the form of recharge¬ 
able batteries that can bejuiced up over 
1,000 times! Even alkaline batteries can't 
hope to compete with that kind of 
longevity. 

Two models are offered, for single- or 
double-battery recharging. The former, 
identified as the BC-3, sells as a complete 
unit. With the Double-Charger, how¬ 
ever, the unit and the type of batteries pre¬ 
ferred must be purchased separately. 



E-Z Port/Versa Ware/Suggested 
retail price: $24.95 

Apple owners have long suffered 
with a not-so-secret sorrow: everytime 
they want to plug or unplug a paddle or 
joystick, the whole machine must be 
opened up. There's no external connec¬ 
tion for such gaming paraphernalia. 

The folks who make, among other 
things, the VersaWriter, have come to 
the rescue with an easily attached exter- 

pressure connection" which will greatly 
prolong the life of those fragile, multi-pin 
plugs. 

The 'E-Z Port' is suitable for hooking 
up a pair of paddles or ajoystick. The ac¬ 
tual port attaches to any convenient spot 
on the outside of the Apple's casing with 
a self-adhesive back. 















’‘’‘Sly *'* 







ELECTRON 
ms$ HOTLI 




Computer 

shorts 



popular comptuter games 
for Sirius Software, including 

witha new company called 
Gibelli Software. The infant 

Firebird, touted as a depar- 

★ On-Line, having hit it 
big with Jawbreaker for 

the Atari 400/800, is busily 
converting some of its other 
leading titles for play on the 

Hi-Res Adventure series is 


tion from the original Apple 

★ Prospects for accep- 
tance of the TRS-80 Color 
Computer by the electronic 
gaming community look a 
lot brighter than they did six 

new games from Tandy 






































Odyssey 

Outlook 

★ Odyssey has stolen a 

companies by being the first 
to get a gobble game into 














































































star 


An introduction 
to computer 
adventures 

By Amie Katz 


here's a dragon living at our house. 

bolds, zombies, ores and hordes of evil¬ 
doers of every description. Fortunately, 
there's no immediate cause for alarm. 
They're all trapped on diskettes, and an 
intrepid band of heroes intends to finish 
most of them off this weekend. 

Combatting the forces of darkness— 
and otherfamiliar elements of sword and 
sorcery hi/inks like finding treasure and 
saving damsels in distress—are among 
the thrills that await players of computer 
adventure games. Already running a 
close second to arcade-style computer 
programs in overall popularity, adven¬ 
tures give devotees the opportunity to 
spend a couple of hours vicariously ex¬ 
periencing worlds of frightening dangers 
and glorious deeds. 


games like chess and Monopoly, 'DSD' 
emphasizes creating a persona for a 
game-character and then play-acting 
that character through a series of 
increasingly challenging situations. 

In another striking depature from the 
usual boardgame, participants work co¬ 
operatively to accomplish common 
goals instead of competing against each 
other. It is not uncommon to see one 
player sacrifice a character to preserve 
the others in the adventuring group. 

"Winning" in games like 'Dungeons 


' ience as a result of their exploits and 
gradually rise in power during the course 
of their heroic careers. Sometimes, suc¬ 
cess is measured in the number of char¬ 
acters that survive a deathtrap to fight 
again another day. 

The hub of any non-electronic role- 
playing game is the so-called Dungeon- 
master (DM). This individual designs the 
scenarios, referees games in progress 
and informs players of the consequences 
of their characters' actions. Here's a seg¬ 
ment that might occur in a typical session 
of 'Dungeons & Dragons’: 

Parly Leaders: We're walking slowly 
down the passage. Tovah the Thief is 
carefully checking the walls and floors 
for pitfalls and traps. Hercules the 
fighter will bring up the rear. 








enhancements. 

Illustrated adventures. Actual pic¬ 
tures replace the long descriptions of 
what the on-screen hero sees. These 
generally take the form of multi-color line 
drawings in the high-resolution graphics 
mode. Movement is still accomplished 
by the input of commands through the 
keyboard, though the range of com¬ 
mands is frequently more restricted than 
with the text or graphics adventures. 

Action aventures. Manual dexterity 
plays a much bigger role in this type of 
adventure than in any other, since the 
gamer maneuvers and fights by utilizing 
a joystick. There may or may not be a 
few additional one-letter commands 
such as "get," "shoot" and "examine," 
but the emphasis is on navigating your 
adventures around what amounts to a 
schematic map of the game's setting. 

Graphics adventures. The newest 
arrival on the computer adventure scene 
combines elements of all four other types 
in varying proportion. The trend is to¬ 
ward giving the gamer the view of the 
hero's surroundings as he would actual¬ 
ly see them rather than offering an om¬ 
niscient overhead perspective. 

Although a good case can be made 
for graphics adventures as the true state- 
of-the-art variety, all five approaches 
have their unique strengths. Many 
RPGers, for instance, claim to prefer the 
text adventures. They liken the exper¬ 
ience of playing an all-text game to listen¬ 
ing to the radio, in that it gives free rein to 
each gamer's own imagination instead 
of fencing it in by displaying everything 
in minute visual detail. 

So if the workaday cares of 1982 have 
got you down, why not strap on an 
electronic sword, don your armor, and 
head for the dragon's lair? Maybe you 
can become the Siegfried or Conan of 
the computer world! 


INC? 


also get In on the fantasy fun with 
games such as "Adventure" from Atari 

less crude back then than they do today, 
but that couldn't have made them any 
more exciting to play. 

Text-based games created by pioneers 
like Scott Adams filled the gap admirably. 
Since these contests relied on mental, not 
physical, dexterity, the slow response 
time of games programmed in BASIC 
was totally irrelevant. 

Of course, the scope of adventure 
games has widened enormously as per- 
sonal computer hardware improved. 
Some of the newest titles include such 
niceties as illustrations of key scenes, 
multi-character play and even animated 
sequences. Some companies are even 
producing additional scenarios that tack 
onto the basic game program. 

There are five distinct types of adven¬ 
tures currently available. They are: 

Text adventures: These resemble 
short stories that are, in a sense, jointly 
written by the game's designer and each 
individual player. When the person or 
persons manipulating the on-screen 
characters inputs one- or two-word 
commands via the keyboard, the pro¬ 
gram responds with the appropriate de¬ 
scription . Often but not always, text ad¬ 
ventures present a series of puzzles that 
must be solved in a pre-determined order 
until the ultimate goal is finally achieved. 

Augmented text adventures. 
These are basically similar to the standard 
text adventures but add an extra dimen- 


watching behind us for an ambush. 
DM: You walk 60 ft. and see a door on 
your right. 

Tovah: I'mlookingatthedoorand, parti¬ 
cularly, the lock. 

DM: It is an oaken door reinforced with 
metal strips. The lock appears to be of the 
pin tumbler type. 

Tovah: I will attempt to pick the lock. 
DM: You succeed. 

Party Leader: Let's open the door and 

DM 6 ; You're in a dimly lit room and six 
hulk shapes charge at you from the dark 

Party Leader: Battle positions everyone! 

And so it goes. The only catch is that 
the Dungeonmaster usually ends up 
spending untold hours creating the fan¬ 
tasy world and dreaming up exciting sce¬ 
narios. What's more, the DM must func¬ 
tion solely as a neutral arbiter and can't 

Electronic adventures substitute the 
computer for a human DM. While no 
machine can match the imagination, 
creativity and resourcefulness of a live 
Dungeonmaster, the computer version 
requires little set-up time and no impartial 
umpire. Virtually ail computer adven¬ 
tures can even be played solitarie, while 
non-electronic RPGs require at least four 
or five participants. 

The development of interactive com¬ 
puter adventures confirms that necessity 
is, indeed, the mother of invention. They 
were truly an inspiration born out of 
desperation. 

The first generation of personal com¬ 
puters, however well they balanced 
checkbooks and stored mailing lists, just 
didn't have the capacity to adequately 
render arcade games. The reasons were 
simple and obvious: the earliest micros 
lacked the basic ingredients that make up 
such programs. They possessed neither 
sound nor color and offered only the 
most rudimentary on-screen graphics. 

Perhaps novelty alone made those 
pioneering computer arcade games look 

































By Willy Richardson 


B ythetimea coin-operated electronic 
game arrives at your local amuse¬ 
ment center, candy store, bowling alley 
or tavern, it has already withstood an ex¬ 
perience more strenuous than anything 
it's likely to encounter from the paying 
customers. 

Arcade machines aren'tjust dreamed 
up, stamped out, certified smash hits 
and, eventually, retired to coin-op 
heaven (someone's basement play¬ 
room). No, the evolution of the games 
into which we all feed so many quarters, 
from creative concept to final paint job, is 
a highly complex process. 

At the Atari coin-op division, the com¬ 
pany's oldest operating arm, it all begins 
with a brainstorming session. Ideas are 
tossed around, revamped, rejected, cut, 
tailored and set out to cool. Of the thou¬ 
sands of concepts that have been test- 
flown across the conference table, only 
a very few ever negotiate the long wind¬ 
ing road from imagination to reality. 

The idea is, of course, only half the bat¬ 
tle. The concept must be executed. It has 
to be shaped to meet the demands and 
limitations of current technology. The 
best game idea in the world is worthless 

Coin-ops, however, benefit from a 
much greater array of options than is the 
case with other types of electronic 
games. Designers are free to employ spe¬ 
cial intelligent monitors—such as the 
quadrascan system which Electrohome 
developed exclusively for Atari—that 
provide much higher graphic resolution 
and freer on-screen movement than is 
possible on a cathode ray tube (TV) 




eye-catching lettering for the unit's title. 

Four months later. Atari technicians 
assemble the first prototype, and in- 
house testing begins. Testers weed out 
gross errors and subject the game to pro¬ 
bing critical evaluation. 

If all is still "go," Atari builds several 
more prototypes and ships them to ar¬ 
cades all across the country. There the 
hardcore electro-gamers go over the 
new machine with a fine-tooth comb, 
picking up glitches and suggesting 
refinements. 

Then the games return to the factory 
for more analysis and adjustment before 
a second round of on-location testing. 
This is the only way to determine if the 
new coin-op is rugged enough to stand 
up to heavy pay traffic in the commercial 
amusement centers. 

Finally, the prototypes return to Atari's 
Sunnyvale, Ca„ headquarters for final in¬ 
spection. Boot camp is over. From now 
on, it’s all gravy. .. or so the manufac¬ 
turer hopesl 

Soon the new machine is running off 
the assembly line in batches. The entire 
unit is assembled right in the factory. 




Coin-ops have another edge: colored 



plastic overlays, which can create 
breathtaking images within the dark¬ 
ened confines of the cabinet. Games 
such as Warlords benefit from gor¬ 
geous overlay work that even the main¬ 
line computers would be hard-pressed to 

Game creators must also adapt their 
ideas to the stringent demands of the 
coin-op marketplace. Are the images 
colorful enough? Is the game going to 
satisfy even players who are quickly 
eliminated? Is it boring? Addictive? Does 
it look too complicated to master? 

Once a game idea is approved, the 
company allots three to four months for 
development and puts its game wizards 
to work. Meanwhile back at the ranch, 
the graphics crew is doing its thing, de¬ 
signing backboards, overlays (if any) and 
side-decals for the machine's cabinet. 
Special attention is lavished on creating 









everything from control devices—like 
the mini-trackball recently introduced on 
Centipede—to the program boards. 

Coin-op games don't enjoy very long 
lives. Even the most successful titles rare¬ 
ly survive more than ayearat the peakof 
popularity. After their time has comeand 
gone, some of the machines are sent to 
warehouses for resale to clubs, resorts 
and even some private collectors. 

Others get to go 'round one more 
time. In arcade terms, they are reincar¬ 
nated. Atari yanks the innards, strips the 
outer surface and uses the chassis for a 

But a few coin-op machines, who are 
very, very good, attain a particularly 
happy retirement in the Atari Game 
Room. Yes. game-lovers, it really exists. 
It's located in an L-shaped room just off 
the main reception area at Atari's main 
facility. There, in a luxurious carpeted 
setting, is a copy of every major coin-op 














| Enjoy your own orcode at home! 

Now you con have a new, used, reconditioned or closed 
our commercial video or pinball machine of your very own. 

Inrerlogic has Asteroids. Phoenix. Space Invaders. 
Pac-Man and many more orcode gomes 
available or rhe best possible prices. 


HISTORY 

continued from page 23 


Atari's Steve Wright. "The VCS was 
basically designed to play paddle games 
and tank battles. In fact, when the VCS 
was being designed, it was felt that a 2K 
program capacity would be more than 

"But then they decided, 'What the 
hell, why not make it 4K,' " Wright ex¬ 
plains. "Not that they thought anyone 

As things turned out. Atari began 
making 4K games—putting an extra 
chip into the cartridge itself—long before 
they ever expected to be doing so. By the 
time Missile Command and Asteroids 
appeared in home editions, the com¬ 
pany was utilizing a technique that per¬ 
mitted the VCS to read two flipflopping 
4K programs. 

Activision, formed by Jim Levy and a 
quartet of designers, was the next new 
thing in electronic gaming. Established in 
1980, it is exclusively devoted to the de¬ 
sign and marketing of home videogame 
software. Activision now makes games 


compatable with the VCS, but rumors 
are rife that other suppliers will be follow¬ 
ing in Activision's successful footsteps 
before the end of this year. (One has 
already been announced; Imagics will 
produce cartridges for both the VCS 
and Intellivision.) 

Odyssey, the company that began 
the whole field, ismakinga major assault 
on the home market. While continuing 
to produce arcade-style titles like UFO 
and K.C. Munchkln and kideo entries 
like Monkeyshfnes, Odyssey is trying to 
catch the fancy of more sophisticated 
players with games that make use of the 
unit's alpha-numeric keyboard. Its adult 
strategy series of boardgame/videogame 
hybrids deals with such classic themes as 
fantasy adventure (Quest for the 
Rings), war (Conquest of the World) 
and high finance (The Great Wall 
Street Fortune Hunt). By expanding 
the range of its software library. Odyssey 
clearly hopes to benefit from the grow¬ 
ing recognition that electronic gaming is 
a pastime for the entire family. 

The last word in the videogame saga 
may well bring things full circle, right 
back to the computers that spawned it 
all. Today's microcomputers are more 
powerful than the one on which Steve 
Russell created 'Spacewar,' so it's entirely 


logical that personal computers will be¬ 
come the game machines of tomorrow. 

Forthe present, videogame manufac¬ 
turers remain unsure as to whether the 
average American is ready to buddy up 
to a computer. Atari, it is reported, will 
soon begin production of a super video- 
game system capable of presenting coin¬ 
op quality programs. 

The question for now is: at what point 
does the videogame system meet the 
computer? As the latter simultaneously 
becomes cheaper and more powerful, it 
won't be long before the two segments 
of the electronic gaming hobby are 
joined together as one. Already the flop¬ 
py disk is vying with the ROM cartridge 
as a medium for storing games. 

One thing is for sure. If the first decade 
of videogames is any indication, the next 
10 years ought to provide plenty of ex¬ 
citement both on and off the home 



. stock\ s ^ 
in^merica. 


























































force. Alien rockets pour out of 
the heavens, the flames from 
their engines etching the sky 



space driving game in which 
the arcader steers a ship using 
the joystick so as to avoid coli- 
sion with on-coming moonlets. 
Pushing the action button 
throws the craft into super- 
speed mode, enabling the play¬ 
er to tote up more points fortra- 


fun games for the Odyssey' 
programmable videogame 

Since kicking things off with 
Cosmic Conflict, in which ar- 
caders hurtle through the void, 
zapping enemy ships, the com¬ 
pany's design staff has always 


PUTUPI5TIC 

uioeoGnmes 
pop Home 
mcnoes 


en the wishes of SF-lovers 
y much to heart. The soft- 
ire line has grown to include 

’aders from Hyperspace, 
Allen Invaders—Plusl and 

le highly unusual War of 
1 -is. Forsaking the lypical 



le menacing ur 

star cruiser, that is rarely ap¬ 
proached by even the fast- 


Waging 

Interstellear War 


One of the hallmarks of Mat¬ 
tel’s software for Intellivision is 
that it always seems to provide 
an extra dimension for what- 

This is certainly the case with 
the epic Space Battle, the flag¬ 
ship of the company's science 


standing graphics, what 
distinguishes 'Space Battle' is 

an excellent outer space shoot¬ 
out. As commander of three 

cader must carefully allocate all 

and future dangers. Even if 
you're a better shot than Luke 


tridges released for the Video 
Computer System last year. 

And if Asteroids has its par¬ 
tisans. so does Missile Com¬ 
mand. Experts rate the video- 
game edition as one of the best 
programs ever prepared forthe 
VCS—and its tremendous sales 
certainly back up this view- 

Atari didn't just start doing 
science fiction videogames late¬ 
ly, though. Spaceship was 
one of the first titles released for 

ous variations included on the 
cartridge. Warp, is particularly 


veling further without a crack- 
up in the time allotted. Atari has 
spoken of pruning some of the 

make room on the retail shelves 

jockeys may want to pick up 
'Spaceship' before it becomes 


A Space Odyssey 2 

Award winner at 'Best Science 
Fiction Game,' is only the latest 


INVADERS FROM HYPERSPACE 














SPACE ARMADA 





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triumph if it fakes your mini¬ 
fleets out of position and then 
streaks in on the mother ship. 

The new year will bring 
good news for Intellivision 

ting the lack of arcade-style 
games with a science fiction 
twist. The company will shortly 

games-Astrosmashand 
Space Armada. The former is 
a struggle against careening as¬ 
teroids and homicidal mon¬ 
sters, while the latter puts the 
player aginst phalanxes of 
marching invaders. 


The result is Laser Blast, the 
program that stands the origi¬ 
nal Space Invaders concept 
on its head. Instead of cower¬ 
ing behind shields at the bot- 

directs saucers on a mission of 
retribution against the extra¬ 
terrestrials' installations on the 
surface of the moon. The object 
is to obliterate as many of the 

possible, before the creatures' 
mighty laser cannons turn your 

added complication is that the 
surface batteries are protected 



Striking Back 
at the Aliens 

playing one of the many inva¬ 
sion games, that you'd like the 
chance to strike an offensive 
blow against the monsters? 
That thought evidently oc- 
cured to the folks at Activision, 


by an invisible shield wall. As 
the game progresses, the arca- 

with progressively stronger 
shields that prevent the saucers 
from coming in too low. 

The defending aliens have 

track the assault ships, forcing 
constantly, even whjle trying 






MICROCOMPUTERS 


Scoring Big 
at the 
Starcade 



be playing on home screens. 

already spawned Protector 
(Crystalware) and Gorgon 
(Sirius Software), with more to 
come. Atari has purchased the 
home arcade rights to 'Defend¬ 
er,' so ownersofits systems will 
soon have another first class SF 



One Against 
the Galaxy 

high-technology battle armor. 
Your mission: free a planet from 
the imperial yoke of oppres¬ 
sion. That's the background of 


(Spectrum) for the Atari 800. 
Big Five Software, which spe¬ 
cializes in arcade games for the 
TRS-80 Model l/lll, offers Gal¬ 
axy Invasion. 

tions of Asteroids for the 
Apple II. Quality Software has 
Meteoroids in Space, while 
California Pacific has replaced 
the standard hunks of space 

Apple-olds. Big Five 3 'is the 
source for Super Nova for the 

It's usually a safe bet that any 
science fiction game that regis¬ 
ters well in the commercial 













Two pictures are worth 



Atari vs. Intellivisim? 

Nothing I could say would be more 
persuasive than what your own 
two eyes will tell you. But I can’t 
resist telling you more. 

— George Plimpton — 





a thousand words. 













Two pictures are worth a thousand words. 



















A Little History 
Lesson 


Multi-Phase 

Mayhem 











MISSILE COMMAND COIN-OP 



THE 

QOSMIQ 

CUARTEF 

SNAT3HEHS 

[SOMETH 









THE 

80SMICS 

DUAFTEF- 

SNAT3HEFS 

GCMETH 















F orget about the Oscars, Emmys and Tonys—here come 
the 1982ArkieslThe third annual Arcade Awards, this year 
sponsored jointly by Video magazine and Electronic 
Games, honor outstanding achievements in the field of elec¬ 
tronic arcading in the year 1981. 

And what a banner year it wasl Manufacturers responded 
to the tremendous increase in the popularity of electronic 
games by introducing a record number of titles. Overall quality 
also took a giant leap forward, resulting in intense competition 
for every one of the 13 major prizes. Many games that had to 
be content with an Honorable Mention in the 1982 



Arcade Awards would have 
been winners in either of the 
two previous years. 

Before proceeding to an 
analysis of the winners, let's 
run through the ground rules. 
Games introduced into na¬ 
tional distribution during 1981 
were eligible, except for a few 
13th-hour entries which will 
be held over for consideration 
by the 1983 Arcade Awards 
committee. No title can win 
more than one Arkie in a 
given year, although multiple 
Honorable Mentions are al¬ 
lowed. New for this year are 
Arkies for the best computer 
games, a logical extension of 
the original concept. 



WARLORDS 


Asteroids is such a game. 
Last year, it captured the Arkie 
for the best coin-operated 
game. This time, solidifying its 
standing as one of arcading's 
authentic classics, 'Asteroids' 
was the unanimous choice as 
Videogame of the Year. 

Eagerly anticipated before 
its release, 'Asteroids' more 
than lived up to its advance 
billing. Atari scientists have 
done a marvelousjob translat¬ 
ing the quadrascan original to 
the home screen, actually in¬ 
venting a new process that 
"fools" the VCS console into 
reading a program twice as 
complex as any previous 
ROM cartridge. 











el & Frank Laney Jr. I 


The VCS version even adds 
colorto the game, an element 
missing from the original. 

(Quadrascan is currently a 
black & white technology.) 

Add in the most distinctive 
sound effects since Space In- 

truiy satisfying gaming 
experience. 

Honorable Mention: 

Quest for the Rings 
(Odyssey) 

The first boardgame/video- 
game hybrid is a lot more than 
just a design curiosity. It’s a 
solid, playable cartridge that 

of adventurers attempting to 
defeat the forces of evil in a " 

land of magic, mysteiy and danger. 

Honorable Mention: Missile Command (Atari) 

Here's another Atari coin-op success that has made it big i 


ASTEROIDS 


H3210 iiiiii ± 

* * 

* ♦ * 

♦ *.♦ * 


human participants, Odyssey 

with lots of variable factors to 
keep the action continuously 
fresh while still providing the 
kind of visual pyrotechnics ar- 

Another ingenious feature 
is that the program makes use 
of the Odyssey keyboard to 
allow players to customize the 
stocking of the various dun¬ 
geons and labyrinths that lie 
beneath the castles on the 
map. This makes every play 
session unique, while pre¬ 
venting adventurers from de¬ 
veloping "sure win" strate¬ 
gies that would ultimately rob 
Quest for the Rings of 

much of its excitement. 

Honorable Mention: Freeway (Activision) 

many electronic games being merely refinements 


le arcade market. It takes quick reflexes and good of existing hits, it’s refreshing when a new title introduces a 
marksmanship to save the six cities from destruction by missiles totally original brand of play-action. A few minutes of steering 
from space. the chicken through lOlanesofon-comingtrafficrarelyfailsto 

Honorable Mention: UFO (Oddyssey) put a smile on the player's face. 

This program gives new meaning to the phrase "fast Honorable Mention: Asteroids (Atari) 
action". Blasting away at the The importance of Atari's 

three types of marauding achievement of getting a 

system to run an 

riding one those ^^B 

mechanical bulls. Blink once. |1 

and it's all over. B 

BBB-BDhD ■ ■ whole more 

I ■ B sophisticated cartridges. 

Quest for the Rings 

(hat 

Odyssey has charted a bold ^B I Now that so many of the 

new path for videogames I U U U 11 

with this adventure fantasy HB I S 

i b i |h■ ■ 

■ JB B ntic 

■H ■ ■ 

inspired. By assigning some of games are played in rotation, 

the details of play to the dodge em not simultaneously.) 

















That's why Tennis, designed by Al Miller, is such a wel¬ 
come additon to the Activision line. The program provides a 
choice of two skill levels, which can be set individually. 
Honorable Mention: Ice Hockey (Mattel) 

Ice Hockey is a particularly good competitive game, be 
cause mere manual dexterity isn't necesarily the ticket to an 
electronic Stanley Cup. Even if your fingers are more numb 
than nimble, you can stay in the game with pinpoint passing 
and carefully coordinated offensive thrusts. 

Honorable Mention: Warlords (Atari) 

Home arcaders in the habit of inviting a bunch of friends 
over for a night of gaming will definitely want this one. 
Warlords is the first cartridge playable by four participants. 



The best thing about Missile Command, from the solo 
gamer's point of view, is that it has the most extensive options 
for varying the difficulty of any video gasme. Good players 
always find it annoying to have to start each game at a level of 
play suitable for only the most inexperienced new-comer. 
With 'Missile Command', the arcader can select the precise 
starting point that's appropriate for his or her ability. 
Honorable Mention: Dodge 'Em (Atari) 

The very first gobble game to reach the market makes a 
pleasant solitaire pastime. Most arcaders quickly master the 
trick of dealing with one computer-driven crash car, but it gets 
a lot trickier after that second robot-controlled auto starts 
zooming from lane to lane. 

Best Science Fiction Game: UFO (Odyssey) 

Terming the pace of UFO' 'fast" is a little like referring to pro¬ 
fessional wrestler Andre the Giant as "tall". A typical game of 
'UFO' Is a symphony of multi-hued explosions that seems to 
end almost before it starts. The same experts who measure a 
successful round of Space Invaders or Asteroids by the 
number of hours the machine takes to demolish the player's 
entire arsenal would be happy to last 10 minutes in 'UFO'. 

As captain of an Earth Federation cruiser, the arcader must 
face peril from every direction in the form of three distinct types 
of unidentified flying objects. 

Honorable Mention: Laser Blast (Activision) 

This is the cartridge that gives grizzled veterans of alien inva¬ 
sion games the chance to turn the tables. The arcader directs a 
fleet of flying saucers that must wipe out a series of enemy 
ground installations. 


Best Sports Game: USAC Auto Racing (Mattel) 

This race game hasjust about everything previous attempts 
to simulate the sport have lacked. The cars look—and 
steer—like cars, and they roar around realistic tracks. 

Drivers choose from a selection of autos with differing acce 
leration, cornering, braking and speed characteristics. The 
courses are also a pleasingly varied lot, ranging from fairly easy 
to tracks that feature turns so sharp that only the most skillful 
will be able to avoid a costly spin-out. 

Honorable Mention: Championship Soccer(Atari) 

Like many of the Atari sports games. Chamionship Soccer 
would never win a prize as the most realistic simulation. But it 
deserves a great deal of praise for reproducing a lot of the feel 
of the actual sport in an easily learned and fun-to-play format. 
An added bonus is that it plays very nicely as a solitaire contest, 
something that's rare among sports titles. 

Honorable Mention: Tennis (Activision) 

The trapezoidal field elevates this cartridge above the typical 
pong-style tennis games that once dominated the home ar¬ 
cade scene. 

Best Pong Variant: Warlords (Atari) 

Ball-and-paddle games have certainly come a long way 
since the days when pioneering arcaders huddled in front of a 
screen with a white line down the center and a block-like pad¬ 
dle on each side. Warlords is a four-way battle with a medi¬ 
eval theme. Players attempt to batter down the walls of their 
opponents' castles and slay the monarchs inside. 

Honorable Mention: Blockout/Breakdown (Odyssey) 
There's nothing new about games in which arcaders at¬ 
tempt to dismantle multi-colored walls by firing projectiles 
against them using a paddle to keep the "ball" in play. The 
added ingredient is a troupe of hard-working demons that 
rebuilds the barriers as fast as the bricks disappear. 
Honorable Mention: Whizball (Zircon) 

There's really no other videogame quite like this one. 
Players fire pellets called "whizballs" at gigantic floaters in an 
attempt to knock one through the opposing goal. 


NHL HOCKEY 



Best Audio-Visual Effects: Kaboom! (Activision) 

Charming graphics turn a pleasant, if unexceptional, title in¬ 
to a true videogame classic. From the hissing fuses of the 
explosives to the maniacal grin on the face of the mad bomber 
when one of his devices gets past the player's water buckets, 
Kaboom! is a real visual treat. 





Honorable Mention: Quest for the Rings |Odyssey) 

One of the joys of this game is the way the dsigner has 
given each type of monster not only a unique look, but a 
distinctive mode of movement and attack. Having to watch a 
spydroth tyrantulis drop down on the head of your hero and 
suck him into its gaping maw is a sight the elecronic adven¬ 
turer will not soon forget. 

Best Commercial Aracde Game: Pac-Man 
(Namco/Midway) 

Can a game without aliens, missiles and explsions make it in 
the family amusement center? Pac-Man proved conslusively 
that the answer is, 'Yes!" Thanks in part to its tremendous ap¬ 
peal to female arcaders, 'Pac-Man' machines gobble up 
quarters nearly as fast as the little on-screen pac-man scoops 
up the point-scoring pellets in this maze-chase program. 

Delightful audio-visual effects further enhance one of the 
best-designed of all the coin-op games. The most interesting 
play-feature is that while the pac-man ordinarily must flee from 
the rovers, it becomes the aggressor after gulping down one 
of the special energizers. Then it is the rovers' turn to run, 
because the arcadercan score big bunches of bonus points by 
gobbling them up. 

Honorable Mention: Defender |Williams| 

Truly original coin-op games can be counted on the fingers 
of one hand. This is one of them. Players maneuveran armed 
plane over the horizontally scrolling surface of a planet, bat¬ 
tling the winged aliens and attempting to save the doomed 
inhabitants. 

Honorable Mention: Battlezone (Atari| 

Early versions of this game, in which arcaders pilot super¬ 
tanks on the surface of the moon, had players peering 
through a periscope. Atari deep-sixed the periscope when the 
company realized that people enjoy waching the hunt for the 
enemy vehicles almost as much as taking the controls them¬ 
selves. Still, the original edition does have a special flavor, put¬ 
ting the player in splendid isolation even in the middle of a 


Computer Game of the Year: Star Raiders |Atari) 

"Which do you want, strategy or graphics?" That used to 
be a question frequently asked of computerists by game soft¬ 
ware manufacturers. Star Raiders, for the Atari 400 and 800 
systems, changed all that almost overnight. This space war 
simulation blends a tactical shoot-out with a galaxy-spanning 
strategic-level situation—and puts it all together with some of 
the best game visuals ever seen on a computer monitor. 

Four different missions, each a bit more difficult than the last, 
help arcaders get a handle on the 'Star Raiders' universe. The 
complex after-action scoring system is also a joy, providing 
even novice star warriors meaningful goals at which to aim. 

Best Computer Action Game: Jawbreaker |On-Line) 

This is the program that, more than any other, demonstra¬ 
tes the excellence of the Atari computers as game-players. The 
multi-voice rendition of "The Candy Man" that serves as the 
opening theme music, to cite an obvious example, could not 
have been done on any other micro. 

But there's a lot more to Jawbreaker than just bells and 
whistles. Beneath the surface trimmings lies a superb home 
variation on this year's Arcade Award winner in the coin-op 
division, Pac-Man. This time, though, the idea is a merry spree 
in a candy shop. A mouthful of chomping teeth crunches the 
hard candies that line the mazelike paths, chased from one 
end of the store to the other by a gang of four bullies. 



Best Computer Sports Game: Computer Baseball 
(Strategic Simulations) 

Statistically-minded sports freaks have participated in face- 
to-face and mail leagues using non-electronic replay simula¬ 
tions for over 30 years. Now computer owners can do the 
same with this outstanding portrayal of diamond drama. 

The best thing about Computer Baseball is that all the 
complicated play mechanics are buried in the computer, 
where they belong. Managers can, therfore, concentrate on 
making many of the same decisions that folks like Tom Lasor- 
da and Billy Martin deal with every summer day. 

Clearly, the designers know as much about baseball as they 
do about computers. Key elements, such as having to proper¬ 
ly warm up a relief pitcher, that are neglected in even the best 
manual simulations get consideration here. And though the 
graphics aren't arcade-quality, they at least give the managers 
a visual representation of what's happening on the field. 

'Computer Baseball' is a definite home run. 

Best Computer Adventure: Empire of the Over-Mind 
(Avalon-Hill) 

Although Empire of the Over-Mind resembles many 
other text adventures in terms of basic presentation, the mar¬ 
velously inventive plot makes it an especially absorbing and in¬ 
volving experience for electronic heroes. In particular, the fact 
that it does not require the arcader to solve a series of puzzles in 
lock-step order must be considered a tremendous plus. 

The program pits the adventurer against a sinister intelli¬ 
gence, the Over-mind, which holds humankind under its 
thumb on two planets. There's more than one way to attain 
the goalof overthrowing this tyranny, so whena particular sit¬ 
uation seems insoluble, it's always possible to back up, go to 
another location and try something else. 

'Empire of the Over-Mind' is one of the best arguments for 
the idea that, even though programs with graphics are start¬ 
ing to hit the market there will continue to be a place in com¬ 
puter arcading for well-written text adventures. 


COmPUTER 

PLBVLBNO 

*** + **+** + *** + * + *+1 



Raster Blaster (fiudg'eQo/Apple 
II/48KJ is the first computer simulation of 
a pinball machine that delivers what it 
promises. When immersed in an actual 
round of play, it is easy for the gamer to 
forget that 'Raster Blaster' is only an im¬ 
age on a television screen. 

Immediately upon completion of the 
booting process, a stunning array of 
flashing lights and electronic "neon" 
greets the player. Arcaders can then 
choose to either play alone or against up 
to three other pinballers. 

There are two levels of difficulty, and 
most folks will want to begin with the 
easy one. The ball has less chance of fall¬ 
ing by the wayside, giving gamers a 
chance to get the feel of the "table." 

The game is played usinga pair of pad¬ 
dles. The action buttons had better be in 
good working order, too, since they 
serve as the controls for the flippers. 

As with any pinball machine, the ob¬ 
ject is to beat the game for all it's worth. 
The geography of the playfield provides 
plenty of action—and lots of oppor- 
tunities to prove your flipper-game 
mastery. In particular, the four bumpers 
located near the top of the field are very 
lively. The two lowest bumpers sport 
flags that blink when hit. Turning them 
on is worth 5,000 points and causes 
'Raster Blaster' to energize its claws. 

The machine's grabbers can hold two 
balls on the table indefinitely, until the 
third one is also caught. Then it creates a 
storm of chaos by releasing all of them, 
much like a real pinball machine. Fire¬ 
ball. Inis-'aiso earns the arcader a 
15,000-point bonus, so the mayhem is 
not without some rhyme or reason. 

Illuminating the three flags on the right 
hand side of the field lights an orange 


"B" and tacks 10,000 points onto the 
score. The final hurdle to conquer con¬ 
sists of a set of four lanes at the top of the 
screen. If a ball goes through all of them 
on the same round, an R lights to ac- 



RASTER BLASTER 


knowledge the achievement, and the 
machine increases the arcader’s total by 
10,000. 

Bill Budge is a member of that elusive 
fraternity of programmers who have an 
incredible familiarity with the Apple's 
inner workings. 'Raster Blaster’ seems to 
do some things that one would think 
were beyond the computer's capa¬ 
bilities! 

Only one programming bug turned 
up, and it occurred only once. The ball 
became stuck in the right hand lane, and 
the game had to be rebooted to con¬ 


tinue play. It was hard to fight down the 
urge to apply a little "english " by whack¬ 
ing the side of the television set. 

Bill Budge deserves congratulations 
for the excellent graphics work on this 
program. 'Raster Blaster' is a superior 
effort that is packed with fun. (Leigh 
Goldstein). 

Falcons (Picadilly Software/Apple 11/ 
48K disk), based on the popular 
Phoenix coin-op. is one of the truest 
renditions of a commercial arcade game 
available today. 

The player is given three ships and 

coming face-to-face with the alien 
mothership. The meanies constantly 
move and shoot, while they transform 
themselves into strange bird-like crea¬ 
tures. Pressing the space bar provides 
. five seconds of shield protection. This, 
must be used sparingly, however, since 
there is a five-second recharging period 
before they can be energized again. 

The first wave of aliens appears in a 
format that will be familiar to players of 
alien invasion games. After the player 
dears the screen, the next batch emerges 
in oval formation. The third and fourth 
fields consist of small blue and orange 
dots that evolve into funny-looking 
birds, which dive and collide with great 
regularity. 

Getting to the mothership seems like a 
great achievement, but in reality, it's only 
the beginning. This reviewer has not yet 
succeeded in destroying the alien nestled 
within the huge craft. 

'Falcons' is tough. The extreme diffi¬ 
culty of the game lends itself to the kind 
of repeat playing characteristic of home 







***************** 


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JAWBREAKER 


lands, extends Its gangplank and 
deposits the next cannon. 'Sneakers' 
also features an attract program similarto 
the ones that lure players to the coin-op 
devices. Not exactly necessary for a 
home arcade game, admittedly, but the 
designer can be forgiven this bit of self- 
indulgence. It does, at least, give a quick 
visual synopsis of the scoring sytem. 

'Sneakers' probably would have been 
even better were it not for some of the 
Apple It's intrinsic limitations. The tiny 
speaker in the computer is simply not up 
to producing a "big" enough sound to 
mimic the commercial arcade machines 
as the designer obviously intended. The 
sluggish mechanical action of the Apple 
paddles doesn't help much either, espe¬ 
cially when the player must fire rapidly 
against the Cyclops, H-wings and 

Yet even with these minor shortcom¬ 
ings, there's no question that 'Sneakers' 
is an outstanding program. Turmell is 
reportedly working on a new game, and 
this is going to be one very hard act to 
follow. (Arnie Katz) 

J awbreaker (On-Line Systems/Atari 
400 & 800/48K) introduces gobble 
games to the Atari computer in grand 
style. The theme of this machine-lan¬ 
guage program is a spree in a candy 
store. The arcader steers a mouthful of 
chomping teeth around the maze-like 
establishment, gulping down all the little 
"wifesaver" hard candies in the aisles. 

A gang of four brightly colored bullies 
tries to spoil the fun by chasing you 
around the store and attempting to bash 
out all those pearly teeth. One special 
sweet in each corner of the store isa spe¬ 
cial energizing jawbreaker. For a brief 
period after one is eaten, the chompers 
have the strength to turn the tables on 
the rowdies and gobble them up for ex¬ 
tra points. The bullies turn gray during 
this crucial interval, and their leering 
smiles, change to frowns to show their 
displeasure at getting chased hither and 
yon by the arcader's gulper. After all, 
what bully likes to get a taste of his own 
medicine? 

Once a bully is eaten, its ghost floats 
back-to the corral in the center of the 
playfield, where it resumes its normal bel¬ 
ligerent activities. All the bullies begin to 
flash their true colors when their period 
of vulnerability is about to come to an 
end, giving the gamer a warning that it's 


time to start avoiding them again. In ad¬ 
dition, special treats occasionally appear, 
as if by magic, in the aisles. They range in 
value from 100 points for a lollypop to 
500 for a toy boat. (Who eats a toy boat? 
Maybe it's one of those wax-coated 
candies.) 

"By far the most extensive usage of 
Atari Graphics to date" proclaims the 
colorful and clever instruction folder. 
Designer John Harris can be forgiven 
this attack of egotism, because 'Jaw¬ 
breaker' does, indeed, set standards for 
computer game visuals. For instance, 
when the player succeeds in clearing the 
store of wifesavers, the machine sends 
out an animated toothbrush to scrub all 
the incisors, molars and bicuspids for the 



pig-out isn't too shabby, either. The 
game opens with a multi-voice rendition 
of "The Candy Man" and subsequently 
offers a wide variety of eating and chew¬ 
ing noises that are well matched to the 

Since each round of play is progres¬ 
sively more difficult than the last, it is 
important to take advantage of all the 
scoring opportunities. A little practice 
with the joystick will produce enough 
skill to stay away from the bullies most of 
the time, but the arcader should attempt 
to lure the smilers closer to the chompers 


just before eating one of the special 
jawbreakers. This will enable the teeth to 
gobble up two or three of them before 
they can flee out of range without divert¬ 
ing too much attention away from the 
main business of clearing the aisles of 
wivesavers. During any given period 

point value depends on how many fall 
victim to the teeth. The first is worth 200 
points, the second is 400 points and so 
forth, up to 800 points for the fourth. 

The magically appearing goodies are 
less valuable compared to the bullies, 
and so are not worth a lot of extra effort 
to get. Unless one pops up directly in the 
gobbler's path, it might as well be 

And don’t get greedy about the ener- 
gizingjawbreakers. Try to clear an entire 
quadrant of the playfield before snag¬ 
ging the powerful treat, or you'll find 
yourself with a lot of uneaten wifesavers 
and a pack of bullies hot on your tail. 
Making occasional use of the vertical 
scrolling feature is a good idea, because it 
is less perilous than the trip from the top 
of the playfield to the bottom through 
the maze. Remember, however, that the 
gang of four isn't too dumb to use the 
scroll, too. There's nothing worse than 
getting trapped in that corridor with a 
bully close behind, only to discover that a 
second roughneck is scrolling in your 


* + + + + * + + + * + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 













Q & A 

continued from page 


Rally-X and 'Pac Man'. According to 
their schedule for '82, Atari's VCS ver¬ 
sion of the maze chase classic will be on 
store shelves by March. 

Q: Once and for all I’d like to 
know what the difference Is be¬ 
tween a vectorbeam and a quadra- 
scan and how they work. Even 
though I read that 'Asteroids,' 'Red 
Baron' and 'Battlezone' uses the 
quadrascan system, they each look 
slightly different. 

Also, will N.A.P. be making new 
cartridges of their own or will Mag- 
navox continue to supply games for 
the Odyssey 2 ? |From Jim Cayton, 
Vista, Ca.) 

A.' Actually, Jim, there is no real differ¬ 
ence between Atari's quadrascan and 
the other vector graphics systems. The 
vectorbeam was developed by Electro¬ 
home for Cinematronics and was used 
on such classic coin-op-s as Star 
Hawks and Star Castle. "Quadra¬ 
scan" is essentially the same system, but 
the name is trademarked for use exclu¬ 
sively by Atari. Quadrascan, in other 
words, is a specific vector graphics scan¬ 
ning system, named for the fact that it 
breaks the screen into four equal parts, 
each capable of generating high-resolu¬ 
tion images and moving them at vari¬ 
able speeds. 

Vector graphics employs a specially- 
built, "intelligent" monitor to achieve its 
eyeball-bending images, unlike your 
home television monitor, which em¬ 
ploys the traditional rasterscan tech¬ 
nology. Any differences you may note 
among the various games employing 
vector graphics is probably the result of 
refinement and design improvements. 

As for who will be supplying games 
for the Odyssey 2 , they will continue to 
be produced by the same folks who 
brought you UFO, Quest for the 
Rings and the other O 2 favorites. Mag- 
navox, you see, is a subsidiary of North 
American Philips. The change is mainly 
one regarding retail outlets for Odyssey 
hard and software. Previously, the main¬ 
line system and game cartridges were 
sold exclusively via authorized Magna- 
vox dealerships. By establishing 
Odyssey as a separate division, N.A.P. 
hopes to improve distribution. 

continued on page 56 



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The instruction folder deserves special 
notice. It is fully as delightful as the game 
itself, presenting the simple rules in the 
style of one of those learn-to-read 
primers that substitutes little pictures for 
the hard words. 

Who says hygiene lessons can't be 
fun? |Arnie Katz) 

Missile Command |Atari/Atari 400 
& 800/ROM cartridge) completes the 
hat-trick for this enormously popular pro¬ 
gram that has already done well in both 
the home programmable and coin-op 
fields. 

The computer version represents a 
beautiful translation of the original com¬ 
mercial arcade game. If this 'MissileCom- 
mand' didn’t feature a single central 
command center—instead of the three 
found on the coin-op—even gaming 
gourmets would be hard-pressed to tell 
which one was filling the screen. 

Players begin by choosing the num¬ 
ber of participants |one or two), indicat¬ 
ing whether scoring 10,000 points 
should earn a bonus city, and selecting 
the difficulty level at which the action will 
start. As 'Missile Command' fans know, 
the object is to fire anti-ballistic missiles 
|ABMs) to detonate incoming rockets be¬ 
fore they can devastate the cities under 
your protection. 

The enemy bombardment comes in 
short, but intense, bursts, each faster and 
deadlier than the one which preceded it. 
Therefore, by setting the game to com¬ 
mence at wave No. 10, arcaders will test 
themselves to the limit from the very first 
shot. Of course, the more difficult the 
wave, the higher the point value. 

Cursor action is satisfy ingly fast. The lit¬ 
tle aiming square flies across the screen 
with a speed reminiscent of the coin-op's 
track-ball controller. It's even possible to 
set up a protective umbrella of ABMs that 
will stop all but the mightiest weapons 
from striking the cities. 

The always-nameless foe does have 
some fearsome armaments, too: ICBMs, 
MIRVs (multiple warhead missiles), killer 
satellites and bombers, and even smart 
missiles that can avoid or deflect ABMs 
not perfectly targeted. 

After each attack, the computer tallies 

cities and defensive rockets remaining. 
The gamer usually uses this interval to 
take a few deep breaths and prepare for 



MISSLE COMMAND 


the next onslaught. 

Strategy is similar to that used in the 
coin-op version. Remember to allow for 
the time it takes for an ABM to travel to its 
goal and fire where you expect the 
missile to be when your ABM detonates. 
It is generally not worthwhile to protect 
flattened cities while, conversely, saving 
the two metropolises on either side of the 
command center should get top priority. 
The game's excellent instruction manual 
also advocates launching "insurance" 
missiles at the left and right ends of the 
playfield in hopes of catching a bomber 
or satellitejust as it appears on the screen. 

The graphics are outstanding. It's 
quite a sight to watch up to five different 
types of weapons streaking down the 
screen while your cursor hunts them 
down. (Bill Kunkel) 

Galactic Chase (Spectrum Compu¬ 
ters/Atari 400 & 800/16K & disk) proves 
there's truth in the old saying that you 
can't always tell a book by its cover. The 
crude illustration on the rules folder, 
which serves as the game's cover, is un¬ 
worthy of the program inside. 

Arcaders browsing the software 
shelves may be so put off by the package 
that they fail to investigate 'Galactic 
Chase.' That would be a definite mis- 

lent addition to any Atari gamer's 
collection. 

As the last defender of the civilized 
galaxy, the arcader confronts a succes¬ 
sion of alien invasion fleets. Once the 
battle is joined, the attackers peel out of 
formation and swoop toward the bot¬ 
tom of the field on flared insectoid wings. 
The arcader fires missiles—or, in desper¬ 
ate situations, attempts to ram—the 
invaders to save mankind and, just inci- 
dently, score points. Any creatures who 


scroll off the bottom of the screen auto¬ 
matically reappear at the top and drop 
back into the formation. 

'Galactic Chase' offers both one- and 
two-player options, but like most invader 
programs is more suited to solitaire ac¬ 
tion. There are three skill levels, though 
the aliens' speed and ferocity increase 
even within each level. At the greatest 
difficulty setting, which kicks in when 
the gamer encounters the 31 st alien ar¬ 
mada, the invaders' invisible ray partially 
disables the missile launcher so that the 
defender's weapons travel much more 
slowly. The program helps the gamer 
keep track of the number of fleets des¬ 
troyed by putting a little flag for each one 
eliminated in the lower righthand corner 
of the playfield. 

The arcader faces this mighty on¬ 
slaught with a series of three starships. 
The joystick is used to move the craft 
back and forth across the bottom of the 
screen and the action button must be 
pressed each time a missile is to be fired. 
Scoring 7,000 points adds another ship 
to the defender's reserve fleet, as does 
advancing to the 16th, 32nd and 48th 
fleet engagments. 

Scoring is tallied on-screen at the base 
of the playfield. The program also keeps 
track of the best performance during the 
current session—highest point total and 
greatest number of fleets engaged—on 

The point value of the four typesof at¬ 
tackers—ensigns, captains, flankers and 
command ships—holds the strategic key 
to 'Galactic Chase.' Each type of space 
creature is worth at least twice as much if 
hit while swooping than if it is shot out of 
the formation. The command ships, 
which count for 50 points ordinarily, can 
bring up to 400 points if eliminated dur¬ 
ing a bombing run at the defender. 

So although it's hard to resist all those 
stationary targets, arcaders must use will¬ 
power, Wait for the first invaders to leave 
formation for a lower-altitude attack be¬ 
fore atomizing them. How high you 
score is a function of how long you can 
continue to pursue this approach before 
the steadily increasing number of crea¬ 
tures swooping at any one time over¬ 
whelms the star ship. At that point, it's 
eveiy space knight for himself. 

So ignore the tacky cover artwork and 
back into the formation, with the ex¬ 
ception of the bonus-targets which 
must be destroyed before. (Laney) 





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Dodge Racer (Synapse Software/ 
Atari 400 & 800/16K cassette, 24K trans¬ 
ferred to disk) is a splendid computer ver¬ 
sion of the classic concentric-rectangle 
race game. Players guide cars through 
connecting, maze-like corridors and 
score by running over point-scoring ob¬ 
jects placed at regular intervals along the 
roadways. The main hurdle to clearing 
the entire field is a human or computer¬ 
operated jam car that attempts to crash 
into the arcader's vehicle before too 
many points are amassed. 


Though obviously inspired by Atari's 
Dodge 'Em, this version is clearly an im¬ 
provement on its inspiration. By increas¬ 
ing the number of lanes to six, 'Dodge 
Racer' greatly reduces the chance that 
the gamer will develop a system. Once 
the arcader has a pre-planned route that 
covers the entire field in the shortest pos¬ 
sible time, it takes a lot out of programs of 
this type. It is certainly possible to "solve" 
' Dodge Racer,' but it will take most play¬ 
ers a lot of time to arrive at a sure-fire 


Each player receives five cars, with re¬ 
score counter in the center of the screen. 
Drivers rev up to the higher of the two 
available speeds by pressing the action 
button. At high speed, cars can jump 
two lanes instead of the customary one. 
This is the arcader's sole advantage over 
the jam car, which can never shift more 
than one lane at a time. 

The program includes 16 variations, 
some of which drastically change the 
whole complexion of the contest. One 
variant replenishes the dots after eveiy 
crash, while another pilots the scoring 
racer against two crash vehicles. Up to 
four can play, either taking turns or 
squaring off in a series of head-to-head 
confrontations. 

'Dodge Racer’ uses machine-lan¬ 
guage sub-routines that speed up play 
andjuice up thejoystick response. A sig¬ 
nature tune opens and closes each 
game, and there's a rumbling audio 
track that sounds like a souped-up T-bird. 
Even the instructions are clear and pre¬ 
cise. Maze/chase fans will wantthis one. 
(Bill Kunkel] 

Imperial Walker (Crystalware/Atari 
400 & 800/16K disk) is a mixed bag of five 
games—one didn't even make the list¬ 
ing on the package, because Crystal- 
ware only added it to later editions—that 
range from graphically impressive but 
boring to unique and imaginative. 

The lead-off hitter, Imperial Walker, 
is a disappointment. The walker—or At- 
At—of "Empire Strikes Back" fame 
moves through a series of stiffly ani¬ 
mated poses, but only travels horizontal- 

It certainly looks impressive, at least 
the first few times. You 'll probably gasp in 
astonishment when, after the At-At 
brings down a tie-fighter, a tiny rebel 
pilot emerges, fires a harmless blast at the 
mechanical mammoth and runs off the 

A game needs more than looks, 
though. 'Imperial Walker' leaves a lot to 

The walker can move forward or 
backward, shift its head into any of three 
firing positions and spit laser blasts from 
its mouth, but it can only perform one of 
these actions at a time. Simultaneous 
movement and fire is out. 

Even with such a handicap, the deck 
is solidly stacked in the walker's favor. 






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Q & A 

continued from page 53 


Q: How long does Intelllvision 
take to make a cartridge and how 
much does It cost to make one? 
|from Duane ("Intelllvision") Smith, 
Rochester, Mn.| 

A: First off, Duane, let's make your 
question slightly more generic. Intellivi- 
sion. Atari and Odyssey all take approxi¬ 
mately the ame amount of time in pro¬ 
ducing a new game cartridge: about 
four months. This Research and Devel¬ 
opment period is veiy expensive, as is 
production of the program boards and 
the asssembly line process whereby 
they are placed within protective plastic 


Q: I would like to buy an Atari 400 
computer, but I would like to put 
more K memory into It. The people 
at Atari told me if I do that, the com¬ 
puter might break down, and it 
won't understand what I want It to 
do. (From Robert F. Hobbs, Dracut, 
Mass.) 


A.' Well, asyourfriendly Game Doctor 
has had an Axlon 32K Ramcram in his 
400 for over six months now without 
any ill-effects, the only real cause for con¬ 
cern seems to be Atari possibly voiding 
the warranty on any souped up system. 

Several companies are now produc¬ 
ing upgrade boards for the Atari and, 
aside for occasional line-distortion, they 
are all apparently safe. As for the compu¬ 
ter failing to "understand" you, I can't 
imagine why. The only real danger 
could come from accidentally inserting 
the board into the 400 backwards. So if 
you’re not sure what you're doing, 
have an authorized dealer install it for 
you. * 

Well, it's time to lock up the question 


there on the videogame golf course 
and shoot a few holes.Butifyou have 
any questions about programmable 
videogames, hand-helds, coin-ops or 
computer games — any aspect of elec¬ 
tronic arcading — just drop a line to 
your favorite gaming sawbones. Send 
your problems and question to: 
Electronic Games, 235 Park Ave. 
South, New York, N.Y. 10003. c 








































While this is admittedly true to the "Star 
Wars" mythos, it makes the game pretty 
one-sided. The tie-fighter, which can be 
controlled by either the computer or a 
second human player, can only stop this 
armored lummox by shooting at its vul- 

The bottom line is that 'Imperial 
Walker's first-rate visuals mask a pro¬ 
gram that has many of the characteristics 
one would expect of a computerized 
sleeping pill. 

Auto Race challenges garners to 
steer cars through a treacherous maze. 

number keys to shift gears. Not so nice is 
that the programmer didn't take the time 
to adapt 'Auto Race' for joystick move¬ 
ment. Having to steer with the four direc¬ 
tional keys makes this game much more 
trouble than it’s worth to master. 

On the other hand, those who enjoy 
"nim" games have got to love Lazer 
IMim. For the uninitiated, this version 
provides several rows of little robot kew- 
pie dolls. Alternating turns with the com¬ 
puter, the arcader eliminates as many 
dolls as desired, but only from one row in 
a given turn. The object is to see who 

This program won't make anyone for¬ 
get Star Raiders, but it certainly is the 
best version of this ancient game for the 
computer. The allure is all in the charm¬ 


ing graphics: the androids resemble 
nothing so much as the aliens from 
"Close Encounters of the Third Kind." 

Gunfight is a wild west shoot-'em- 
up, and the same thing has been done 
better. The colors seem rather bleak, and 
the bullets can be difficult to pick out 
against the background. The shining 
moment comes when a gunfighter stops 
a fatal slug. The computer trills a short 
dirge and then sets up a little tombstone 

Snake 'n Shake is the mystery bonus 
game mentioned earlier. Ironically, it's 
the disk's real treasure. This clever cousin 
of Surround is an abstract contest that 
sends gamers on a chase after a random¬ 
ly appearing blue dot. The target pops 
into existence, stays a few seconds and 
then blinks to another section of the 


The player uses a joystick to direct a 
cursor that grows a longer tail each time 
it catches up with the dot. Running into 
the playfield boundary, the obstacle 
cross located at the center of the screen 
or the tail of the snake ends the game. 

With some practice, skillful players will 
soon be hauling around a snake that's 
several times longer than the diameter of 


The trick is to pass up the dot when it's 
wedged Into particularly tough spots 
and make the most of opportunities to 


get it when it's comparatively accessible. 
Be particularly on guard against running 
over the tail, which often happens when 
the arcader tries to brake or suddenly re¬ 
verses direction. 

'Snake 'n Shake' ranks as one of the 
most stimulating challenges to the hand- 
eye masters to come along in sometime. 
So be sure to get the editions which in¬ 
clude it. And if you got one of the earliest 
copies of 'Imperial Walker,' see if you can 
exchange it for a newer one. The pre¬ 
sence of 'Snake 'n Shake' on the disk 
spells the difference between a question¬ 
able value and a real bargain. (Bill Kunkel) 

Star Thief |Cavalier Software/Apple 
II/48K) is almost assured of a warm re¬ 
ception, because it is one of the few pro¬ 
grams offered for the Apple that two 
people can play simultaneously. Based 
on the coin-op success, Ripoff, the 
general object is to keep the aliens from 
stealing the pulsating pods. 

The game starts slowly, but the action 
heats up significantly as it progresses. 
Each participant is armed with phasers to 
shoot at the multi-colored and swift- 
moving aliens, who fire back and gobble 
up the pods as they fly. Controls function 
exactly like Asteroid Field, Cavalier's 
previous entry. Pushing the paddle but¬ 
ton rapidly discharges the phasers, while 
holding it down applies thrust to the 

The concept is straightforward: Blast 
the enemy to smithereens before they 
can clear the field of pods. The game 
ends when both players have been killed 
and all the pods are gone. Some of 'Star 
Thief's' best moments come when the 
pods are gone, one player is out of com¬ 
mission, and the survivor battles to the 
death with the invaders. 

Avoiding the comers is guaranteed to 
keep you in the game longer, because 
that's where the aliens materialize. 
Shooting through the sides of the screen, 
using a technique reminiscent of one 
facet of strategy for Asteroids, is quite 
legal—and very effective. Players are al¬ 
lowed to team up to form a united front 

can go it alone. 

Whichever way it's played, 'Star 
Thief is sure to appeal to arcaders look¬ 
ing for another outlet for a strong des¬ 
tructive streak. (Leigh Goldstein) 



•!• 4 * 4 * -b ❖ *+ ❖ *+* 4 * * * 4 * 








Swords Against 
the Evil 
Wizard! 


r he Quest/Survival Software/ 
Atari 800/48K disk 

This is the initial installment of a pro- 
jetted multi-part epic that is distinguished 
from the usual run of such games in sev¬ 
eral important ways. 

One is that, in a field overwhelmingly 
dominated by adventures with a fantasy 
theme, this one has a resolutely science 
fictional slant. It's a post-nuclear war 
story in which the hero starts on the out¬ 
skirts of one of the few remaining settle 
ments and heads West to discover what 
remnants of the once-mighty American 


civilization might still exist. 

Another unusual wrinkle is that The 
Quest is an augmented text adventure. 
Besides the usual words, it is graced with 
some entertaining audio-visual effects. 
As night begins to fall, for instance, the 
screen's background color slowly dark¬ 
ens from daylight blue to midnight black. 
Firing a gun—assuming, of course, the 
arcader is clever enough to find it— 
produces an audible report. When an 
adventurer tries to study a map, the 
screen displays an actual drawing, not 
just a written description of its contents. 


Something else not found too fre¬ 
quently in other games is 'The Quesf's 
concept of "the Guardians." If the com- 
puterist attempts to direct the on-screen 
explorer into a course of action within 
the game for which the hero is unpre¬ 
pared, the program prints out a warning 
and prevents progress along forbidden 
lines until any deficiency is rectified. 

Whether this is a good thing or a bad 
one will depend entirely on each indivi¬ 
dual's attitude. Some will greatly preferto 
have their character live—or if need be 
—die as a consequence of his own ac¬ 
tions. Others will undoubtedly be grate¬ 
ful to "the Guardians" for saving them 
from expending a lot of futile effort. 

The program itself is of fairly good 
quality, but it has some annoying as¬ 
pects. There are some intriguing puzzles, 
but there are also entirely too many "set 

Here's an example. At one point the 
explorer, while examining a room, is 
jumped from behind by a crazed |and 
wounded) man. The man flails about 
wildjy and rushes past the adventurer, 
leaving a crucial map behind. Even 
when the gamer takes precautions 
against being surprised in this man¬ 
ner—or when you knoyv the attack is 
coming because it isn't the first time 
you've played this section of 'The 
Quest'—there is no way to prevent or 
anticipate this event. Your character can 
face every direction in the room and not 
see this guy, butjust let the explorer start 
to leave and—whaml—the wounded 
psycho jumps on his back out of no¬ 
where. There is also no way to stop the 
man from leaving, even if the doors and 
windows are locked. It would have 
been a lot more sensible to have hidden 
the map somewhere in the room so it 
could be found. Such false notes definite¬ 
ly detract from an otherwise enjoyable 
experience. Hopefully, the designer will 
learn to avoid such set-ups in future in¬ 
stallments. 

Wizardry/Sir-Tech/Apple II/48K disk 

Although it lacks some of the play-ele 
ments found in other titles. Wizardry's 
debut is an event of singular importance 
to lovers of computer adventures. Those 
who have a thorough grounding in 
non-electronic role-playing games like 








'Dungeons & Dragons' (TSR| will be par¬ 
ticularly excited by the possibilities. 

The initial package—Sir-Tech has 
promised that additional scenarios will 
become available about mid-year— 
includes the Master Disk with a "gilded 
hole" scenario on the flip side. 

Proving Grounds of the Mad 
Overlord, though quite enjoyable in its 
own way, is intended by the designers 
to help players become familiar with the 
system and develop characters powerful 
enough to stand a chance against some 
of the forthcoming menaces. The wizard 
Weirdna has stolen a valuable object 
from the treasure rooms of the mad 
monarch Trebor, and the gamer must 
forge charcters mighly enough to sur¬ 
vive the dangers involved in getting it 
back. 

A particularly well-done instruction 
book tells everything needed to create 
and direct the on-screen heroes and 
heroines without revealing too much 
about the various charts, tables and 
equations that underlie movement, 
combat and other actions. 

While a reviewer might wish to know 
more about what makes things tick, it's 
possible to make a veiy good case for the 
attitude that the players are better left in 
ignorance about such matters. Lack of 



pinning. 

Designers Andrew Greenberg and 
Robert Woodhead contend that 
'Wizardry', at 14,000 lines of code, is the 
longest program ever written for a micro¬ 


computer game. Considering the wealth 
of detail they've packed into this thing, it 
may well be true. Greatly facilitating 
ease-of-play is the fact that 'Wizardry' is 
done in Apple Pascal 1.1 Run-time Op¬ 
erating System. This yields a game that 
will run on a garden-variety Apple II Plus, 
yet has lightning-quick data manipu¬ 
lation no Basic program can match. 
Once a computerist becomes familiar 
with the procedures in 'Wizardry,' it’s 
possible to input and process informa¬ 
tion faster than the monitor can print itl 

The best way to giveyou some idea of 
this title's features is to run through the 
steps necessary to create a party. That's 
right, RPGers, it is possible to run a group 
of up to six characters at the same time. 

After choosing a name, the player de¬ 
termines the race (human, elf, dwarf, 
hobbit or gnome) and the alignment 
(good, neutral or evil). The computer 
then prints out the values for the six basic 
traits (strength, I.Q., piety, vitality, agility 
and luck) appropriate to the race select¬ 
ed. Also generated is a number of "free" 
ability points, usually in the 7-30 range, 
which the player can allocate as desired. 
This makes it possible for any one charac¬ 
ter to attain the minimum needed prime 
requisite for any of the four "regular" 
classes of adventurers (fighter, priest, 
thief and mage). There are also four 
"elite" classes (samurai, lord, ninja and 
bishop), but only bishop is available to a 
beginning character—and then only if 
the adjusted ability scores are ve/y high. 
Finally, the gamer has the option to keep 
the character roiled up or scrap it and tty 
again. 

It would be helpful if subsequent edi¬ 
tions put the selection for alignment later 
in the character generation routine. The 
thief class, for example, is only open to 
"neutral' or "evil" characters, and it 
would be good to have a less restricted 
range of choices. 

The actual classes are a well-done 
adaptation of standard non-electronic 
role-assumption gaming fare. The 
balance of strengths and weakness com¬ 
pels all members of an adventuring party 
to work together to achieve success. 
Fighters are best in combat, mages work 
spells, priests can fight a little and pull off a 
variety of miracles, and thieves are ex¬ 
perts at defusing traps and picking locks. 
In the case of the latter class, however, 
it's too bad the game could make no pro¬ 


vision for the thievish skills of sneaking, 
stealing and climbing. There's a slight 
tendency, when playing, to treat the 
party's thief as a human can-opener, so 
gamers are advised to control at least 
one other adventurer on the mission or 
risk boredom. 


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STRENGTH 11 GOLD 

p!p?y § EXP 

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* warn 




WIZARDRY 


Once enough characters are produced, 
the focus shifts to the castle. A visit to the 
Inn permits the players to assemble a par¬ 
ty of heroes, and this is often followed by 
a trip to Boltac's Trading Post to buy arms 
and armor. Some magic is also obtain¬ 
able, but it is properly expensive and 

Then it's off to the maze-like warrens 
beneath the castle. The computer shows 
players a constantly updating 3-D per¬ 
spective view of what the characters 
would actually see, a rundown on the 
party members' current status and a list 
of options requiring the typing one one 
letter to implement. The party moves 
through the corridors, exploring rooms 
and changing levels. Mapping is abso¬ 
lutely necessary. 

Though beings met in the dungeon 
occasionally greet the party with friend- 

point. If one occurs, a color drawing of 
the monster-type closest to the party ap¬ 
pears in the upper left-hand comer, and 
the opposition is listed to the right. 

Players then choose an option for 
each character. When this is completed, 
the program fights the first round of com¬ 
bat, reporting what each participant on 
both sides is doing. The current status of 
everyone involved is revised, and the 
process repeats. 













If the party vanquishes its foes, the 
number of experience points earned by 
each character replaces the list of attack- 

matically parcelled out evenly. Finally, if 
there is a chest, the game initiates that 
series of options for the players. 

If the party has sustained appreciable 
damage, it may erect a camp. There, in 
safety, the adventures can cast healing 
spells, examine mysterious items found 
in the dungeon and revise the .group's 
marching order. 

'Proving Grounds of the Mad Over-, 
lord' gives adventures a fair shake, but it 
is very stingy with its rewards. Charac¬ 
ters have to work hard and take big risks 
to get any of the real plums. 

After exiting the maze, the party may 
gototheTempleofRadiantCant, where 
the holy men will raise the dead and cure 
the poisoned or paralyzed for a stiff fee. It 
is wise to camp shortly before returning 
to the castle and use up any healing 
spells on party members that need the 
help. Damage not repaired in this 
fashion can be mended with rest at the 
Adventurers Inn. There are several 
grades of accommodations, each with a 
different healing rate. Since aging is a fac¬ 
tor in the game, the best rooms should 
be chosen if the character can afford the 

The visit to the Inn is also the means by 
which the program records each charac¬ 


ter's newly gained experience. Those 
which have accumulated enough points 
are advanced to the next highest level 
within their class. This frequently gains 
new or heightened abilities. 'Wizardiy' 
also borrows a concept introduced by 
the non-electronic "Tunnels & Trolls" 
and has the ability scores fluctuate slight¬ 
ly when a character attains a new level. 
Usually, several traits will increase by a 
point each, but a reduction becomes 
more likely as a character gets older. Age 
50 seems to be the woriy line. 

Even this extensive review only 
scratches the surface of 'Wizardry.' The 
only way to really understand this 
smooth-playing fantasy game is to get 
out there and adventure in it for awhile. 
And in this case, that is highly recom¬ 
mended to all electronic adventurer- 

B ook of Hints/Adventure Interna¬ 
tional/Not a program 
Scott Adams Adventures were among 
the first—and remain among the best- 
series of inter-active computer text 
games. There are many reasons for their 
widespread acceptance, not the least of 
which is that Adventure International 
has made its varied line available for most 
of the major micro systems. 

Yet that alone cannot explain their en¬ 
during popularity in a field that always 
puts a premium on the new and in¬ 


novative. Scott Adams himself, a skilled 
programmer with a flair for concocting 
ingenious puzzles laced with a bracing 
dash of humor, deserves a large measure 
of the credit. This library of scenarios, an 

the introduction to computer adventur¬ 
ing for most of those presently engaged 
in this facet of electronic gaming. 

If Adam's creations have an achilles 
heel, it is that, in general, the individual 
puzzles and traps must be surmounted in 
a pre-determined sequence. Failure to 
penetrate even one of the many myster¬ 
ies contained within each Adventure in¬ 
evitably brings all progress to a screech¬ 
ing halt while the player frantically hunts 
for the key to the solution. 

Typing in the command "help" will 
sometimes elicit enough information to 
get things moving again, but not al¬ 
ways. Adventure International has how 
taken pity on us poor folks who are, tem- 

against one of Adams' creations by pro¬ 
ducing a book of hints covering the first 
nine programs in the set. 

Author Adams displays just as light a 
touch here as he does with the games 
themselves. The hints are not so specific 
that they ruin all the fun, yet they contain 
enough wisdom to prompt most players 
to develop the correct strategy. 

Even better, the suggestions are pre¬ 
sented in a format that is appropriate to 
the spirit of the games upon which they 
comment. That is, they are not given in a 
cut-and-dried, straightforward manner. 
It requires a small amount of work on the 
gamer's part to unearth these clues. 

The process of finding a hint is relative¬ 
ly simple. After locating the section of the 
booklet for the desired adventure, the 
truth-seeker scans a list of short questions 
until he finds the one that seems to apply 
to the specific predicament under study. 
Underneath each question is a series of 
numbers. These are cross-referenced 
with a special code dictionary. All the ar- 

word for each corresponding number. 

This may sound cumbersome, but it 
has one important advantage. It is vir¬ 
tually impossible to see a hint not abso¬ 
lutely required by the gamer. After all, 
who wants to spoil an adventure by in¬ 
advertantly learning the solutions to all 
the puzzles? 

A wise adventure-gamer should no 
more consider tackling one of Scott 
Adams' brain-bogglers without 'Book of 
Hints' clutched firmly in hand than the 
on-screen hero would assay a danger¬ 
ous quest without sword. :: 







VIDEOGAME PLAYERS ' 1 

T-Shirts 

——"S ' 1 



































By Frank Tetro, Jr. 

I n UFO, players control a spaceship 
equipped with armed, ramming 
shield, in an area of space patrolled by an 
intergalactic foe capable of dispatching 
three types of deadly weapons. The en¬ 
emy can launch random UFOs (worth 
one point|, hunter-killers (three points| 
and even light-speed starships (10 
points|. The player must use his shield to 
destroy as many of these as possible 
before his ship is obliterated. 

The shield appears as a ring of eight 
colored dots, one brighter than the rest. 
This is the cannon. Moving the ship 
causes the shield to rotate in a clockwise 
direction, permitting the cannon to be 
aimed. The shield can also ram UFOs 
and starships. But once it has destroyed 
an enemy weapon or ship, through 


Let's Save 
the Universe 


either means, the shield shuts down 
several seconds for recharging. When it 
returns. It takes on an intermediate color 
before returning to its normal blue. Dur¬ 
ing this period, the ship has a 50/50 
chance of surviving a hit. 

If at any time while you are playing, 
two random UFOs merge, they will 
form a single hunter-killer. As these are 
worth three points to the random type's 
one, let this happen before firing. 

The best strategy for beginners is to 
ram the UFOs, at least until you master 
the tricky business of aiming the cannon. 


With practice, aiming becomes mud 
easier, but you’ll still probably ram mor 
UFOs than you blast. Remember alsi 
that the cannon's range is limited ti 
about one-quarter of the playfield, si 


The most valuable target-object on 
the screen is the light-speed starship, but 
it is also the most deadly. It can travel 
through hyperspace, remember, and 
may turn up anywhere on the screen at 
any time. It also fires in bursts, so that if it 
has the Federation cruiser in its range, 
the first blast defuses the shield while the 
second obliterates the cruiser itself.. 

The starship has an achilles heel, 
however, in that it can only fire in the 
four diagonal directions,. Therefore, if 
the cruiser approaches it from the side, 
above or below, it’s a sitting duck. Trou- 









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JAWBREAKER 


ble is, it doesn't exactly stand still and let 
you get astride it, so you'll have to con¬ 
tinually mirror its movements from a safe 
position until you can get off your shot. 
For beginners, there is a simpler strategy: 
run for your life, hide behind UFOs— 
anything^just stay away from it. 

Again, arcaders will probably find it 
easier to ram the starship than blow it up. 
Whichever tack you prefer, there's no 
avoiding the fact that you've got to get 
the starships for the big point totals. 

Otherwise, stay toward the center of 
the screen. The enemy is always busy 
generating more UFOs off-screen, and 
the unwary pilot caught in the upper 
and lower comers of the playfield often 
ends up floating in space without a craft 
before they realize what hit them. True, 
the UFOs are thickest at center-screen, 
but at least you can see them. 


Jawbreaker/On-Line/Atari 400 & 
800/16K disk 

Jawbreaker is a maze-chase/gobble 
game patterned on the popular coin-op, 
Pac Man. Players maneuver a set of 
teeth through a maze, gulping down lit¬ 
tle white-ringed ’ 'wife-savers" and occa¬ 
sional powered jawbreakers before get¬ 
ting said choppers knocked out by one 
of the quartet of Cheshirefaced "bullies." 

In each of the maze's four comers are 
found the special, jewel-like jawbreak¬ 
ers. Guiding the choppers over such a 
morsel momentarily turns the smiling, 
brightly-colored bullies into frowning, 
blue cowards, which the player may 
then devour for bonus points. Wife- 
savers are worth 10 points, jawbreakers 
count for 50 while bonus objects |lollF 
pops, candy hearts, toy sailboats) range 
in value from 100 to 500 points. 

Eating a bully is profitable business, 
too. The first tough guy you gulp down 
during a given "blue period" is worth 
200 pts., the second, 400 and so on, up 
to 800 points for all four. After getting 
eaten, however, the bully's ghost flies 
back to the "corral" at the center of the 
playfield maze, where he will re-emerge. 

There are two strategic approaches to 
this game, one fora player shooting for a 
high score, another for a gamer who 
wants to clear as many walls as possible. 
(Clearing three sets of wife-savers is good 
for a bonus pair of choppers.) 

When going for points, the best bet is 
to eat as many savers as possible with¬ 
out chowing down on that quadrant's 
jawbreaker. Try to eat the mysteiy ob¬ 
jects when possible—take no senseless 


risks for a 100 point lollipop, however. 
Only down the jawbreaker when there 
are several bullies on your tail, at which 
point you'll stand a good chance of 
catching all four of them. 

There is also a special tunnel which 
acts as a scrolling short-cut from the bot¬ 
tom of the screen to the top, or vice ver¬ 
sa. When moving through the tunnel, 
the teeth travel at normal speed, but the 
bullies are reduced to half their normal 
movement rate. This makes a very con¬ 
venient escape hatch, therefore, in tight 

If you opt for the second approach- 
going for as many walls as possible, you 
must mentally divide the maze into four 
sections, right through the middle, each 
containing a colored jawbreaker. Go to 
work clearing one section at a time. 
When bothered by bullies, just gulp the 
jawbreaker and they'll run away. Do 
not attempt to chase them; simply 
continue on your way until you've 
cleared that sector of wife-savers, then 
move on to the next one. 

With each wall cleared, the bullies get 
quicker until they can eventually move 
faster than the teeth. At this point, clever 
timing in devouringjawbreakers and 
expert use of the scrolling tunnel are 
required ingredients. 


Star Raiders/Atari 400 & 800/8K 

Star Raiders is a computer adventure 
which puts the player in the cockpit of a 
mighty intergalactic starship. As part of 
the Atarian Fleet you must rid the gal axy 
of enemy fighters, cruisers and deadly 


basestars. 

As the game begins, hit "S" to activate 
your shields lest a stray meteoroid demol¬ 
ish you beforeyou even start, and "C" to 
start up the attack computer, which is in¬ 
valuable in targeting. Next push "G" to 
summon up the Galactic Chart. This 
grid-display will indicate the positions of 
the friendly starbases, which must be 
protected at all costs, in relation to 
enemy squadrons. 

At the "novice," or learning, level, the 
trip into warp space is navigated by the 
computer. At other levels, a steady hand 
on the joystick is required to stay on tar¬ 
get as the tremendous strain of warping 
can cause the ship to waffle slightly, re¬ 
quiring manual readjustment. Remem¬ 
ber that pushing the joystick left moves 
you right and vice-versa: everything in 
hyperspace is backwards. This will take 

Once you've reached the desired sec¬ 
tor, one of several things will happen. If 
there are no Zylons in the area |they can 
change location quickly), all will be quiet. 
If the enemy's around, warning claxons 
sound an alert, and the attack computer 
will pick up the nearest target and focus 
in on it, giving a visual aid as to its loca¬ 
tion in the sighting device in the lower 
right corner of the screen. The computer 
also feeds other information that allows 
you to line up the enemy along the ver¬ 
tical and horizontal coordinates with the 

Once within a zone, you can hit one 
of the numbered keys to apply impulse 
engine power. Sectors are rather large, 
and even Zylons in the same sector may 















be outside your ship's range. Once 
you've activated the engines—6 or 7 is a 
good cruising speed—move to within 
100 centons of the enemy craft you're 
seeking, at which point it will become 
visible on screen. When it's in the 
crosshairs, fire twice, in rapid succession, 
launching both left and right photons. 
Remember, though, these babies fire 
back, so don't let them get too close. 

If you have trouble centering the ship, 
or if it seems to disappear off the sides of 
the screen, it is probably firing from 
behind you. When this happens, hit "T" 
and the computer will track the enemy, 
automatically shifting from front to rear 

Once you destroy a ship, the com- 

Zylon. But ifyourship is hitatany butthe 
"novice" level, it may be damaged. If It's 
something serious like the engines or 


tracking computer, or if the fuel dips 
below 1500, it'stimetodockatafriendly 
starbase for fuel and repairs. 

Track down a basejust asyou would 
an enemy ship. When you get close 
enough to see all six window ports on 
the starbase, hit "zero" on the keyboard 
to come to a complete stop. The 
message "Orbit Established: Stand by" 

well. Sit back and wait unitl the computer 
reports that the transfer is complete, then 
get on with your star raiding. 

As explained before, the Zylons first 
surround, then destroy your bases. 
When a base looks hopelessly outgunn¬ 
ed, you may choose to fly in and finish it 
off yourself so as not to lose as many 
points. Use this maneuver sparingly, 
however, as the Atarian Federation 
does not look kindly on this sort of 
interstellar genocide. 


worth more than twice as much as rock¬ 
ets sitting on the ground. 

As mentioned, your ship can either fire 
lasers from the bow or drop bombs. The 
best strategy at this level is to stay close to 
the ground, using the ship's laser to 
knock off targets. And always go for the 
fuel tanks, to insure your own supply. 

Aside from controlling vertical move¬ 
ment, this coin-op's joystick also has 
horizontal control. Movement to the 
right speeds up the ship; movement to 

Mastering these motion controls 
comes in very handy, especially during 
the fifth scenario, when you must guide 
your craft through a maze-like city of 
walls with fuel tanks blocking the way. 
Using the laser, eliminating the fuel tanks 
should be fairly easy. Navigating 
through the city's labyrinthine turns isn't 
quite so simple. 

Bear in mind that your ship, like a 
shark, can never stop moving. There¬ 
fore, since it seems impossible to move 
vertically without going forward, most 
players assume they can't go from the 
top of the playfield straight down to the 
bottom in order to complete the maze. 

Not so! There is a way to temporar¬ 
ily make strictly vertical moves. When 
this phase begins, push the stick all the 
way to the right, taking her to maximum 
speed. Then, when you reach a point at 
which a vertical move is needed to reach 
the next passage, simply push the joy¬ 
stick diagonally to the lower left to drop, 
or the upper left to rise straight up. This 
will simultaneously slow the ship to mini¬ 
mum speed while affording upward and 
downward control. Then, once you've 
reached the next passage, return to full 
speed to get ready for the next vertical 

Once the fifth level has been con¬ 
quered, you will next fly over a city and 
attempt to detroy the base station. This is 
fairly straight-forward stuff. After that, 
you can try the whole thing again. 
However, this time the Scramble War¬ 
riors are slightly more agile, so good luck, 
and keep on trekkin'l 

Note: Because of operator-controlled 
options on many coin-op machines, all 
do not work on the same difficulty levels. 
Keep this in mind if you find a game 
much more difficult than described. Itjust 
means thatyou live in an area with some 
real hot-shot arcaders who have forced 
the arcade operator to re-set his machine 
upa notch ortwo (coin-opsoften feature 
several difficulty levels| in order to keep 
from being skinned alive. Maybe you 
should consider another neighborhood. 




Scramble/Stem/Coin-op 

Scramble is a space action 
game in which arcaders must 
shoot their way through five 
Scramble Defense Systems to 
the base station which must 
also be destroyed. After that, 
the entire game begins again 
at a higher difficulty level. 

The five defense systems, 
each requiring a separate 
strategy, become progres¬ 
sively more challenging. 
Because of the complexity of 
this game, and the limited 




ie first ai 


issault, you fly 
over hills and valleys using 
bombs and lasers to destroy as 
many objects as possible. The 
first target is the fuel tank, 
which is not only worth 100 
points, but also adds to your 
supply of energy. Remember, 
if you run out of fuel, you 
crash. The second group of 
targets, the mystery towers, 
are worth anywhere from 
100 to 300 points, and are 
relatively easy to destroy. The 
next objectives, however, are 
not such sitting ducks: they're 
rockets, which are launched 
at your ship if you don't rub 
them out quickly enough. 
The most desirable approach 


ground, then blow 
before they can get n 
you—as flying missiles 


e the 
up 







by Bill Kunkel and.............. 

Frank Laney Jr. ☆ ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 



VIDEO PINBALL 



A steroids (Atari/CX 2649] is the 
long-awaited game that has had 
owners of Atari's VCS lining up to buy 
in record numbers. Advance demand 
ran so high that many retailers had to 
take reservations from eager arcaders 
anxiousto make sure that they wouldn't 
be left out once 'Asteroids' arrived in the 

Why the long interval between the 
announcement of the cartridge and its 
actual release? Making, a home version 
of this coin-op smash proved to be a 
vastly complicated process. The buga¬ 
boo was technology. 

The original 'Asteroids' uses an in¬ 
telligent Quadrascan monitor that 


allows hi-res images to be drawn any¬ 
where on the screen. This permits the 
machine to vary the speed and direction 
of each hunk of space debris. It is impos¬ 
sible to simulate the unique Quadrascan 
output on a traditional rasterscan screen 
such as television sets employ. 

Another hurdle Atari designers had to 
overcome is that the typical coin-op 
game utilizes 16K of memory, about half 


of which is alloted to the "attract mode," 
the little show the screen gives when 
nobody's playing. The VCS, even at its 
optimum, only had the capability of run¬ 
ning a 4K program. 

Note the use of the past tense. 
Development of a bank switching 
system has effectively doubled the 
capacity of the Video Computer System. 

Even so, those who expea the home 
version to be as similar to its coin-op 
parent, as were Space Invaders or 
Missile Command, will be disap¬ 
pointed. Judged on its own merits, 
however, it is an astonishing success. 

Played in the "fast" mode, 'Asteroids' 
is an exciting contest, with multi-colored 






space rocks whizzing around the screen 
in several directions. Even the ever- 
popular “mystery ship" makes an 
appearance (if difficulty switches are set 
to the "A" position]. They make surpris¬ 
ingly challenging targets, even in this 

As most Electronic Games readers 
know, 'Asteroids' casts the gamer as the 
skipper of a spaceship besieged by space 
rocks of various sizes. The craft can be 
rotated a full 360 degrees and has a 
front-mounted laser cannon to chop up 
the moonlets. When a large asteroid is 
hit it breaks into smaller chunks. These, 
in turn, become interstellar pebbles if 
struck by a subsequent laser shot. The 
smaller the asteroid, the higher its point 

Several options are available. One is 
the choice between "slow" and "fast" 
asteroids. The designation is a misnomer, 
since there's no real change in speed. 
What happens is that, in the "slow" 
mode, the space junk moves up and 
down the screen in relatively straight 
lines. Playing at the "fast" setting causes 
the rocks to veer when hit, creating 
havoc for the arcader who must 
simultaneously track numerous objects. 

The player can also select the number 
of points needed to earn a bonus ship 
and whether the craft should be equip¬ 
ped with shields or hyperspace drive. 
Shields temporarily protect against colli¬ 
sion with the asteroids, but they are a 
major drain on the engines. And keeping 
the shields up too long will make the ship 
explode. Hyperspacejumps the ship to a 
random point elsewhere on the screen. 
This is only good for life-and-death situa¬ 
tions, though, because the new location 
is often even less hospitable than the 



Since the best 'Asteroids’ players 
generally try to maintain a position at the 
center of the screen, most use the thrust 
option sparingly. By pushing thejoystick 
forward, the arcader moves the ship in 
the direction in which its nose is currently 
pointing. For abrupt stops, turn the ship 
around and apply thrust until forward 
momentum is negated. 

The addition of color to the pro¬ 
gram—the coin-op is limited to black and 
white with a blue overlay—is a definite 
gain for the VCSedition. Especially pretty 
are the white asteroids, which explode in 
a rainbow when struck by the laser. 


le (Activision/AX-011), de- 
I signer Bob Whitehead provides ar- 
caders with a novel situation. The player 
portrays an electronic horseman with a 
push-button lariat, ropin' steers and 
chasin' mavericks on the open range. 
Cleverly disguised as a cute-but-not-too- 
difficult kideo cartridge, 'Stampede' is 
actually one of the sternest tests of hand- 
eye coordination yet devised by the 

The joystick is used to steer the 
mounted wrangler up and down the left 
edge of the screen. A flick of the action 


button shoots the rope out to snag one 
of the varicolored cows like a frog's 
tongue spearing an unwary fly. 

The big challenge is to never allow 
one of the animals to thunder past the 
cowpoke and off the left edge of the 
playfield. He can keep the herd within 
bounds by lassoing some and nudging 
others by riding up beside them. The 
problem is the mavericks. These critters 
don't move a-tall, so they must be roped, 
or they'll definitely exit stage left. The 
black maverick cows are worth lots of 
extra points, however, and roping them 
will help earn the 1,000 needed to get a 
"■■■■■■ horseman. 

are excellent. The cows 
move at varying speeds, and the pony 
bucks when it runs into a stray and 
stumbles if it trips on a rock. At the higher 
speeds, this cartridge is, as its name sug¬ 
gests, a video stampede. So put on your 
spurs and chaps, slap that 10-gallon hat 
on your head and ride 'em cowboyl 


ro Pinball (Atari/CX2648) tries 
to prove that pinball and program- 
le videogames are compatable, at 











least as much as, say, oil and water. 
Whether Atari has succeeded in wed¬ 
ding the two forms will fuel debate 
among flipper fans and electronic ar- 
caders alike for some time to come. 

Atari made a good start by deciding 
to control the game with a single joy¬ 
stick—and then using the stick, not the 
action button, to direct the flippers. This 
method allows the player to employ the 
little bats at the bottom of the field one at 
a time, much as one would on a coin-op 
pinball machine. (Using the action but¬ 
tons of both sticks, one for each flipper. 

There's a surprising variety of action 
in 'Video Pinball.' Three large square 
bumpers arranged in a big triangle 
dominate the table, which has the 
plunger chute on the right and an 
unguarded drain path on the far left. At 
the top in the center are three drop 
targets. These are worth lOOpointseach 
when hit and, if all three are eliminated, 
the multiplier of the main bumpers in¬ 
creases by one. (The bumpers score the 
multiplier times 100 points for each hit.) 
If all three drop targets are cleared, they 
reappear, and the cycle begins again. 

Two roll-overs figure prominently in 
the game. The one on the left is initially 
worth 100 points times the number 
shown in the channel, which increases 
by one evety time a ball passes through. 
At the end of a ball, however, it rings up 
an additional 1,000 points for each roll¬ 
over, up to a maximum of 4,000. The 
other one, easily identified by the Atari 
symbol, scores far fewer points, but if it's 
triggered four times, the player gets an 
extra ball. Don't get greedy, though; 
Only one bonus bail can be in reserve at 
any given time. The machine prints an 
Atari logo just above the flippers each 
time the gamer scores with the bonus 
ball roll-over. 

Just to add a little extra suspense. Atari 
threw in a special lit target. It biinksonjust 
below the center bumper for four sec¬ 
onds at a time. Hitting it scores 1,000 

Pinballers often complain that video 
pinball fails because the player doesn't 
physically interact with the field. The car¬ 
tridge partially overcomes this by allow¬ 
ing the arcader to apply little nudges. 
Holding down the action button lets the 
gamer tap the ball by pushing the joy¬ 
stick in the desired direction. Only the 
slightest push will work, since anything 
harder causes the game to tilt. 

Video Pinball' includes two difficulty 




levels. The harder adds two more drains 
at the bottom of the playfield. There are 
four variations, two solitaire and two 
head-to-head. Either alone or with a 
friend, you can choose to have the 
multipliers reset after each ball or allow 
them to mount up through the entire 
course of the game. The latter, obvious¬ 
ly, produces the higher scores. 

Although nothing short of an honest- 
to-goodness real pinball table will satisfy 
the purists. Video Pinball' will probably 
interest most videogamers. 



K C. Munchkfn (Odyssey 2 ) is a rather 
■ amusing twist on the gobble 
game theme and earns the distinction of 
being the first of the type to become 
available as a programmable videogame 
cartridge. The arcader moves the mun- 
chkin around the maze using ajoystick in 
an effort to scoop up the 12 mun- 
chies—eight one-point regularones and 
four, three-point specials—before one of 
the three munchers can gulp it down to 
end the game. It is possible to scroll 
horizontally using the corridor of the 
maze that opens to the left and right 
edges of the screen. 

As in Pac-Man, eating the special 
munchies strengthens the munchkin 
enough to turn the tables on its tormen¬ 
tors. If consumed before any return to 
the corral for rechanging, the first 
muncher eaten is worth 5 points, the se¬ 
cond scores 10 points and the third 
counts a big 20 points. 

Clearing the entire maze causes the 
field to be replenished and the game to 
resume—only this time at a higher level 
of difficulty. Both the current score and 
the best total compiled during the cur¬ 
rent play session are shown at the bot¬ 
tom of the screen. As in Odyssey's UFO, 
there's a place for the proud record- 
holder to type in his or her name. 












That's what's familiar 
Munchkin.' There are some notable in¬ 
novations as well. One departure is that 

designs are available in either standard 
or invisible form, and an option that pro¬ 
duces a new configuration each time is 
also offered in both modes. Odyssey has 
capitalized on the flexibility of keyboard 
input to introduce true programmability 
to gobble games. That’s right, arcaders 
can custom-design their own mazesl A 
simple system, which is thoroughly ex¬ 
plained in the instruction folder, enables 
players to quickly add or subtract boun¬ 
dary lines anywhere on the field. 

It goes against the gamer's credo to 
admit it, but'K.C. Munchkin' maybejust 
a little too easy, especially at the lower 
skill levels. Even the fact that the mun- 
chies move around the playfield does 
not balance the relatively slow move¬ 
ment speed, and the lackof a real killer in¬ 
stinct on the part of the munchers. The 
burden will clearly be on the gobble 
gaming gentry to design more byzantine 
mazes that pose a tougher test than the 
ones provided by the cartridge. 


I ce Hockey |Activision/AX-012) 
only this company's first teamsport 
title, but also its first 4K videogame (not 
counting the previously published 
Bridge). The extra length—most car¬ 
tridges are 2K—provides designers the 
opportunity to add complexity and 
subtlely to their creations. 

Sports games aren't the strong suit of 
the VCS, just like arcade games often 
don't look right on the Intellivision. To 
enable it to produce top-quality home 
versions of contests like Breakout and 
Missile Command, Atari traded high 
resolution graphics for faster on-screen 
movement. Mattel made the opposite 
choice as a result of its decision to con¬ 
centrate on athletics as the subject of 
most of its cartridges. 

But with 'Ice Hockey'joining Activi¬ 
sion's Tennis and Skiing and Atari's 
Championship Soccer, VCS owners 


now have a quartet of reasonably 
realistic simulationsthat play well solitaire 
as well as head-to-head. 

The cartridge features a non-scrolling, 
slightly angled rink with two-player 
teams manning each side. Each team's 
forward can skate the length of the ice, 
forechecking fiercely, but the defense- 
men are restricted to their half of the Ice. 

Since there are no referees to police 
things—"I always thought the game 



would be more fun without th 
quips designer Al Miller—slashing, spear¬ 
ing and tripping are vital elements of 
strategy. If. one of your men knocks a 
rival off his skates, the on-screen figure is 

The player nearest to the puck for 
each faction is given a stick with which 
to check, trip, steal the puck, carry, pass 
and shoot. When a player has posses- 

along the length of the blade of his stick. 
The puck's locaton on the blade at the 
moment it is shot determines the direc- 

'Ice Hockey' tests accuracy and timing 
more than simple hand-eye speed. Most 
will need considerable practice to master 
passing and shooting. Thanks to the 
positively wicked solitaire version, you'll 
be able to get plenly of that. 

Don't be discouraged if, at first, the 
computer-coached team seems like Guy 
Lafleur and Tony Esposito compared to 
your imitation of the Winnipeg Jets. 
Playing time will teach you the nuances 


of the board angles, how to deke around 
a defenseman and, perhaps most impor¬ 
tant, defend your goal. 

Do not leave the crease! Not even in 
one-on-nobody situations. A sounder 
approach is to stand your ground in front 
of the net and dare the shooter to slap It 

Two play variations are offered. The 
regular version is the one most hockey 
fans will prefer, while some will find the 
arcade-like action of the variants involv¬ 
ing a slippery, ricocheting puck an in¬ 
teresting change. 



P BA Bowling (Mattel/3333) will 
shock a lot of electronic keglers. 
Have you ever noticed the strange thing 
about video bowling games? The scores 
are always much, much higher than in 
real life. 

Not this time. Arcaders who manage 
to score 200 will have earned the 
musical fanfare the system chirps to 
mark this milestone. 

Participants start by setting the 
parameters for the game. Variables in¬ 
clude the number of players (one to 
four), the slickness of the alley, the 
weight of the ball, which hand each 
roller will use, and whether regulation 
bowling or a "make the spares" contest 

The opening playfield in 'PBA Bowl¬ 
ing' shows a side view of the bowler 
standing next to the automatic return. 
Pushing the direction disk lets the on¬ 
screen athlete pick up his pin-buster. The 
two action buttons on the left edge of 
the controller position the figure any¬ 
where along the starting line. The 
arcader then holds down the lower 
righthand action button, starting a white 
ball moving across the alley over the 
aiming spots. When the shot is properly 
lined up, letting go of the button initiates 
the approach. The gamer quickly presses 
the direction disk again to indicate how 
much of a curve the ball should make. 

As with many Intellivision titles, 'PBA 
Bowling' will not be mastered quickly. 
This is an advantage in that a more dif¬ 
ficult game will stand up better over the 
long haul. It may be a little frustrating un¬ 
til you get the right rhythm, admittedly, 

and spares with consistency, there's no 
bowling cartridge quite as enjoyable as 




What Has 

lour TV Set Done For 
You Lately? 



“Use;« 




















U/hat's New In The 
Rrcades 


Patrolling the 
(Un) friendly 
Skies 


By Bill Kunkel 

A musement centers are becoming 
more colorful and exciting with 
every visit. Better-looking, -sounding and 
-playing games are one beneficial result 
of the competition among manufactur¬ 
ers forarcaders' quarters. 

Yet this fierce rivalry has its negative 
side, too. It sometimes leads to the "fol- 
low-the leader" syndrome in which the 
success of a strikingly innovative game 
sparks a wave of thinly disguised re¬ 
makes or, at best, souped-up elabora¬ 
tions on the original concept. 

Of course, when a coin-op company 
does try to do something fresh, instead of 
grinding out a carbon copy, the results 
can sometimes blow you away. 

Atari has generally proven to be one 
of the most consistently inventive coin¬ 
op suppliers, so let's kick off this install¬ 
ment of "Insert Coin Here" with a look at 
one of the latest from Sunnyvale. 

Red Baron (Atari) 

Arcaders take the stick of a World War 
I bi-plane in this authentic flight simula¬ 
tion. Use of a realistic joystick with firing 
button mounted on the top of the grip 
handle gives a realistic feel during play. 
Red Baron is Atari's first Quadrascan 


VANGUARD 



Quadrascan creates images as three- 
dimensional, crystaline objects, detailed 
schematic line drawings of reality. The 
process produces graphics that are un¬ 
failingly bright and clear. 

Gamers, as World War I flying aces, 
pilot their primitive, propeller-driven air¬ 
craft across enemy lines. While flying the 
hazardous wartime skies, arcaders fire 
the front-mounted machine gun at a 
variety of tempting targets like blimps, 
ground installations and, of course, en¬ 
emy bi- and tri-planes on similar missions 
aloft. 

When the planes are dogfighting, 
machine gun bullets are represented by 
little pellet-like dots arcing through the 
air. Just like the pioneering sky-knights, 
arcaders must work without any target¬ 
ing device, because sights hadn't been 
invented yeti 

The mission becomes progressively 
more difficult. Eventually, everything but 
the horizon line is firing at the arcader's 
ship, with ground bases, blimps and rival 
planes trying to knock it out of the 
clouds. When the inevitable happens 
and the gamer's plane takes a lethal 
burst, the craft dives earthward and 
crashes in a burst of flame! 

In light of Atari's record for games with 


























a science fiction basis. World War I is cer¬ 
tainly quite a departure. Yet anyone who 
gets a chance to try 'Red Baron,' espec¬ 
ially in the sit-down floor model, will 
quickly learn that the far future doesn't 
have a monopoly on thrills. 

Centipede (Atari) 

Centipede presents some wildly un¬ 
likely on-screen characters romping 
through a game that utilizes a play- 
mechanic that should be completely 
familiar to every habitue of commercial 
amusement parlors. A horizontally 
mobile cannon fires straight up attargets, 
as in Space Invaders, but 'Centipede' 
gives this basic concept a few novel 
twists and turns those alien invaders 

One change is that the cannon is also 
capable of a small amount of vertical 
movement. Another is that, at the start 
ofplay.thefieldisfullof. . .mushrooms? 
The centipede, an ugly creature with 
nearly a dozen body segments, immedi¬ 
ately begins a serpentinejourney toward 
the bottom of the screen through the 
corridors created by the mushrooms. 

Players must eliminate the mush¬ 
rooms, the centipede and the fleas and 
spiders which show up periodically. 
Centipede segments are somewhat like 
the targets in Asteroids; When a sec¬ 
tion is hit, it divides into two smaller ones. 
When a bug reaches the bottom of the 
screen intact, it turns around and wends 
its way to the top again. Unfortunately, 
new centipedes appear as soon as any 
reach the lower boundary of the field, so 
players will obviously be trying to keep 
them from getting past. 

The spiders drop in to the action on a 
strand of web and can eat both mush¬ 
rooms and the player. The fleas can 
bombard the gamer, but they also leave 
behind more mushrooms. 

And then there's the scorpion, which 
turns ordinary mushrooms into poison¬ 
ous toadstools. A centipede that gobbles 
a tainted goodie immediately sickens 
and drops toward the bottom of the 
playfield. The only way to put such a 

The game is fun, but the concept 
seems just a trifle bizarre—if not down¬ 
right unpleasant. Bright graphics take 
some of the curse off this coin-op survival 
of the fittest, however, and the game is 
reportedly achieving the kind of success 
in arcades its strikingly original theme 


Red Alert (GDI) 

Another new idea now in the arcades 
courtesy of GDI, which licensed it from 


Japan's Irem, is Red Alert. The arcader 
defends six cities from air by sonic jet 
fighters, attack helicopters laden with 
parachute bombs, MIRVs and heavy 
night bombers. 

The gamer defends one city at a time, 
beginning with a battle against the sonic 
jet fighters in theskiesof Paris overthe Eif¬ 
fel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. Time 
is of the essence in each engagement. 
The onset of night is also a factor that 
must be considered. When darkness falls 
over Paris, searchlights cleave the gloom 
and huntforthe fighters, which can only 
be spotted when directly in one of the 

Next it's off to the Big Apple, where 
the arcader must prevent the helicopters 
from rearranging the New York skyline 
with their bombs. Fans of multi-phase 
coin-ops will then combat the enemy in 
Rome, London, West Germany and, ul¬ 
timately, Japan. Each location is distin¬ 
guished by its most recognizable land¬ 
marks, such as Big Ben in England and 
Mt. Fuji in Nippon. 

If you've successfully defended all the 


targets against this all-out attack, a rain¬ 
bow appears in the sky over Paris along 
with the heartening words; "Peace For- 

Unfortunately, calm is as fleeting in 
'Red Alert' as in real life. A few seconds 
later the enemy is again belaboring the 
City of Light with its jets. 

Vanguard (Centuri) 

This is the latest potential hit from a 
company that has, almost overnight, 
won the respect of coin-op fans with its 
series of excellent space battle games. 
Vanguard, however, is especially in¬ 
dicative of some of the hottest trends cur¬ 
rently sweeping the amusement centers. 

It is for starters, a multi-phase game 
with 12—count 'em!—different fields. In 
it, spacejockeys steer their ships through 
a succession of dangerous scenarios. 

Another hot feature found on 'Van¬ 
guard' is "continuous play". Time was 
when only the real experts got to experi¬ 
ence the later stages of the multi-level 
machines. When a player loses in 'Van¬ 
guard' during, say, the second scenario, 
dropping a fresh quarter into the slot 
restarts the action from that point. (It's a 
little like watching anX-rated movie in an 












REPLAY 


continued from page 61 


to form electronic game clubs (see 
this Issue s "Reader Poll") so that 
enthusiasts can meet and play 
together. 


A successful 
adventurer writes 


It took some hunting, but I finally 
found your magazine. It was definitely 
worth the searchl You are exactly what 
we electronic games fanatics need. After 
years of finding only an isolated article or 
column in electronics or video mags, it is 
extremely satisfying to have a specially 
magazine dedicated exclusively to the 
subject of electronic gaming. 

While I enjoyed the whole magazine, 
the information that you printed on the 
Atari VCS Adventure hidden message 

my family's favorite game. 

I lost no time in tracking down the 
clues |which had puzzled me in the 
past). I had always chalked them up as 
nothing significant. After about an hour- 
and-a-half of trying various strange solu¬ 
tions to the problem, I finally solved it. 
John Denk 
Tinley Park, III. 

Ed: We'll be getting more copies 
of future Issues onto the news¬ 
stands, but the best way to assure a 
steady supply of EG is, of course, to 
subscribe. - 


THE JOYSTICK JURY 
WANTS YOUI 

If the tremendous response to Elec¬ 
tronic Games proves anything, it's 
that you are an unusually knowledge¬ 
able and opinionated bunch. That's 
good. It means you care about this 
hobby and really feel strongly about 
the things that affect it. 

Her's your chance to air your views 
on electronic arcading in front of this 
magazine's entire readership. "Joystick 
Jury", a column of reviews by readers, 
will begin publication in the issue after 



Help keep 
our forest 
from 
smoking. 



Useyour 
ashtray. 

Don't be careless 
| with the future. | 


i!#: 


























By Joyce Worley 

Game-Time/General Consumer Elec¬ 
tronics Corp./$39.95 

When Dick Tracy got bored, he called 
up his trusty friends down at police head- 

Radio. Now, when searching for a mo¬ 
mentary diversion, you too can whip 
out your trusty wristwatch and—you 
guessed it!—play gamesl 

Game Time is an electronic digital 
wristwatch that also plays four arcade- 
style games. Firing Squad, Allen 
Assault, Missile Strike, and Blast 
Away. 

Used as a watch, 'Game-Time' dis¬ 
plays the time and a continuously 
changing pattern on the face. The read¬ 
out is large and clear, and it seems to 
keep accurate time. The changing pat¬ 
tern occupying most of the face of the 
watch is attractive, and no doubt will 
generate a lot of interest from the people 
sitting next to you on the subway, cran¬ 
ing their necks, to see how late they 
are to work. 

But it's when playing with the game 
functions that 'Game-Time' really shines. 
Press the selection button until the num¬ 
ber of the game appears in the time dis¬ 
play window. The right button starts a 
game with sound, while the left starts 
silent play (for those occasions when 
you want a quick round in class without 
the teacher catching on.) 

'Firing Squad' is as cute a skill game as 
we've seen in such a small package. It 


casts the player as a victim facing a six- 
man firing squad. But they've forgotten 
to tie him down. The arcader moves the 
on-screen symbol up and down the right 
side of the field in an effort to avoid the 
bullets. It starts out easy, with only one 
member of the firing squad getting off a 
shot at any one time. Soon they start fir¬ 
ing volleys, however, and then look out! 
Dodge enough bullets and the old firing 
squad marches off the field, and a new, 
faster squad takes its place. When the 
victim is hit, the game ends. The watch 
prints the final score in the time display 
window. One point is scored for each 
bullet dodged. General Consumer Elec¬ 
tronics Corporation must expect players 


GAME-TIME WATCH 



to get good at this—the scoreboard goes 
up to 999 and then rolls over. 

Good strategy in 'Firing Squad' de¬ 
mands that you try not to get caught in a 
corner. There is no trouble scooting the 
human target around when the bullets 
are coming in ones and twos, but when 
a five-man team fires at once, it takes 
some real scurrying to avoid the five-bul¬ 
let volley. If caught in the wrong comer 
when this happens, it's impossible to 
make it across the board to safety before 
the projectiles find their mark. 

Game No. 2 is Missile Strike. Two 
rocket launchers at the bottom of the 
game field fire at enemy missiles crossing 
at different heights and speeds. Pressing 
the left game play button fires the left 
rocket launcher, and the right button 
fires the one on the right. When an 
enemy missile is hit, it scores points and a 
handsome explosion flashes on the 
watch face. The game ends when 30 
missiles cross the air space. 

Each low-speed target is worth nine 
points. The medium missiles count for 12 
points, and high-speed ones score 15. 

Game No. 3 is Allen Assault, a ver¬ 
sion of Space Invaders. Three alien at¬ 
tackers at the top of the screen are the 
targets for the areader's earth station at 
the bottom. Invaders march back and 
forth across the play field, coming closer 
and closer while dropping bombs on the 
earth station. As they get nearer, the 
speed increases. Once a missile is fired, 
the earth station must move before firing 
again. Destroy the first three ships and 
three more appear. The game ends 









pears, to expose the back row of tanks 
and drivers. Blast away all of the enemy 

appear. This time, however, the rocket 
caroms even faster. 

If the rocket gets past the launcher, a 
new rocket appears. Miss five rockets 

This game is very similarto Breakout, 
and the same strategy applies. Try to take 
out the tanks at each end before trying 


Omni/M.B. Electronics/Approx. 
S 120.00 


How many times have you sat 
watching game shows and said, "I 
could do that!"? Well, here's something 
new for quiz show enthusiasts. The 

Omni Entertainment System, a pro¬ 
grammable electronic console using 
8-track tapes, lets arcaders try their hands 


After choosing the answer, press the 
"enter" button to lock the response into 
'Omni.' The master of ceremonies an¬ 
nounces the correct answer and tallies 
the score of each participant, just like a 
video game show. Point values are as¬ 
signed to answers depending on what 
game is played and how fast the player 
responds. The first correct answer en¬ 
tered wins the most points. A running 
tally of earned points appears in the digi- 









tal display scoring window before each 
player. 

There are several 20question rounds 
on each of the four channels on the car¬ 
tridge. Following the 20th question, 
'Omni' verbally congratulates the 
winner, flashes the appropriate scoring 
window several times, and beeps to 
announce the game is over. To start 
another round, the player presses the 
"O/go" button and signs in again. 

The 'Omni' system comes packed 
with a "variety programmed game 
cartridge". Channel No. 1 stars Pat 
Summerall with a Sports Quiz. Channel 
No. 2 features Vincent Price asking 
movie/TV trivia questions. Channel No. 
3 is a reaction quiz that tests general 
knowledge and demands quick re¬ 
sponses. Channel No. 4 is a music quiz 
with two types of questions. Some mere¬ 
ly test knowledge of Broadway shows, 
stars, and popular musicians. The others 
play "Name That Tune." Players guess 
the song titles, and the fewer the num¬ 
ber of notes it takes to identify the ditty, 
the higher the score. 

Throughout the game, the host 
makes occasional appropriate remarks, 
such as "That's using your head!", or 
"You really do know your sports!" Now 
and then a surprise voice may pop up, 
such as the most famous Georgian pea¬ 
nut farmer of them all, giving a little 
history lesson about the backround of 
the song "Goober Peas." 

'Omni' may also be used as an 8-track 
tape player. Simply insert any 8-track 
tape cartridge into the door, press the 
enter button and hold it down until the 
audio part of the tape begins. 

Additional cartridges are available for 
S15 each. These include: Music Quiz, 
Re-Action Quiz, Vincent Price's TV 
Trivia, Vincent Price's Movie Trivia, 
Pat Summerall's Football Quiz, Pat 
Summerall's Baseball Quiz, Jeo¬ 
pardy, Password Plus, Words Words 
Words (spelling bee). For The Fun Of 
It (parly games from "Simon Says" to 
"Ghost"), Sesame Street Games 
Hosted by Big Bird, and Pat Summer¬ 
all's Sports Quiz. 

The 'Omni' unit is a handsome piece 
of equipment that can provide a lot of 
fun for a family that really likes quiz 
games. There's never been anything 
exactly like it available before, and 
everyone age 10 and up should get a 


VL-Tone/Caslo/$69.95 
Want something to do while waiting 
for a turn at "Asteroids’? Casio has a 
new diversion for people who like to fid¬ 


dle with electronic gadgets. 

The VL-Tone is a hand-held (11% in. 
by 3 in) electronic musical instrument 
that anyone can play with no training or 
exceptional talent. Better yet, electronic 
wizardry allows would-be virtuosos to 
pick out songs with one finger, record 
the results, and then play it back with the 
pitch and rhythm desired. 

The 'VL-Tone' has five voices: piano, 
fantasy (synthesizer), violin, flute, and 
guitar. A three-position octave switch 
further expands the 17-note keyboard. 

After recording a tune, it is possible to 
blend in one of ten background rhy¬ 
thms: march, waltz, four-beat, swing, 
rock, fast rock, bossanova, samba, 
rhumba, and beguine. These rhythms 
can also be speeded or slowed, pro¬ 
ducing an unexpectedly large variety of 

The buttons on this attractive unit are 
conveniently arranged in keyboard se¬ 
quence. Tickle the ivories on manual, or 
use the recording feature which remem¬ 
bers up to 100 notes. To make an effec¬ 
tive "name that tune" game, record the 
first lines of several songs, then use the 
onenote playback key to give clues. As if 
that weren't enough, a flick of a switch 
turns the keyboard into a full-featured 
Casio calculator. 

The 'VL-Tone' operates on batteries or 
with an optional AC adaptor. Sound 
emerges either through the instrument's 

audio amplifier or radio cassette recorder. 

The drawback of this unit is that you 
can play only one note at a time; chord- 
ing is not possible. This means that all 
songs must use the pre-recorded rhy¬ 
thms as the bass. Another problem is 
that the buttons which take the place of 


keys are rather small and closely placed if 
you happen to be ham-handed. 

But these limitations aside, the 'VL- 
Tone' offers a lot of fun in a tiny package. 
Even though it doesn't tell time or play 
Space Invaders, Casio's device is 
capable of stealing the heart of every 
would-be musician whojust happens to 
also be interested in electonic toys. 


Head to Head Electronic Boxing/ 
Coleco/529.95 


Head to Head Electronic Boxing, a 

game for the Sugar Ray Leonard in all of 
us, brings the drama of the squared circle 
to the hand-held field. 

The unit features controls for two 
players, separated by the boxing ring. 

Each player has two buttons, used for 
blocking and punching, and a joystick to 
move his man around the ring. 

To begin the game, slide the game | 
select switch to one- or two-player Ja’ 
mode, then press either button to start |g| 
the first round. An overhead view of the sSl 
two boxers appears in the ring. The box- ^ 

touch gloves, and then return to their 
comer. The Gillette "Look Sharp" march 
plays, and the action commences. 

By using the joystick, the arcader 
moves the boxer forward, back, right or 
left. When the boxer comes within strik¬ 
ing distance, keep pressing the punch 
button to control the boxer's right arm. If 
your opponent is on the offensive, use 
the other button to block with the left. 

Should either boxer be knocked 
down, the referee automatically appears 
and moves the standing boxer back to 
his corner. The downed pugilist flashes. 








liiitiii QQ 

in ii in 


than expected from the size of the unit. 
The boxers move all the way across the 
ring, but are limited to only two parallel 
paths. That means the width of the ring 
is not utilized at all! And the joystick con¬ 
trollers are so diminutive that players will 
feel they're using doll-sized levers. 

The size of the unit is also a little awk¬ 
ward. It's too big to be hand-held, yet 
when used as a table-top game, the two 
players are almost on top of each other 
while throwing their punches. 

But these are problems whose impor¬ 
tance must be weighed by the individual 
arcader. 'Head to Head Electronic Box¬ 
ing' is a highly competitive game, 
whether played against a live opponent 
or against the computer. The action is 
fast and the images are bright and clear. 

The unit can provide some good fist¬ 
ic fun within the limitations detailed 



HEAD-TO-HEAD BOXING 


































Joyce Worley 



HCi 

MCTMV 



The object is to arrest criminals and earn 
rewards. The Electronic Crime Scanner 
allows gamers to eavesdrop on the thief, 
so they can hear eveiy move he makes 
on the board. 

To start the game, press the clue but¬ 
ton and hear the thief committing his 
crime. The display window shows the 
number of the building or the street 
where the crime is taking place. Each 
gumshoe's pawn moves by dice-throw 
toward the building. Players begin a turn 
by pressing the clue button and the Elec¬ 
tronic Crime Scanner gives a new sound- 
clue to the thief's actions: crossing a 


squeaking floor, opening a door, break¬ 
ing glass in a window, running along 
the street, or entering the subway. 
Players know how many moves the 
thief can make each turn [two spaces, 
from one numbered square to another]. 
By process of elimination, they deter¬ 
mine where he is located in the building, 
or through which door or window he 
has left the scene of the crime. For exam¬ 
ple, the sound of breaking glass indicates 
the crook has gone through a window. 
Try to locate the window that is the pro¬ 
per number of spaces from the location 


committed. 

Since each building has several loca¬ 
tions marked in red where a thief can 
perpetrate a crime, it takes considerable 
deduction to interpret the sound clues. 
But there is occasional help available, in 
the form of Tipsters. A sleuth card allows 
the shamus to buy a tip, and the display 
readout shows the exact location of the 
thief atthattime. This is the only informa¬ 
tion that the crime scanner provides 
which is not to be shared among all the 
players, so be sure to hide the display 
when the inside information appears. 

continued on page 81 









R esponse to the first Electronic Games Reader Poll was so overwhelming that we've decided to make it a regular feature of 
the magazine. You can help us make this exactly the kind of publication you want by taking a few minutes to fill out the 
questionnaire below. We'll begin reporting on the answers, starting with our first poll, in the next issue of Electronic Games. 

Please return this ballot—or a photo copy if you prefer to keep your copy in perfect condition—to: Electronic Games, 235 
Park Ave. South, New York, N.Y. 10003. 


Sex: Male_Female_ Please rate the following subjects from 1 (not very interesting to me) 

Age: Under 16_ 16-25_ 26-40_ Over 40_ to 10 (of great interest to me): 


Visited a coin-op amusement center_ 

Played a 
Played a 
Played a 

If you presently own a programmable videogame, how many car¬ 
tridges have you purchased within the past 12 months?_ 

How many other people, besides yourself, will read this issue of 


How many times in the last month have you participated in any 
of the following electronic gaming activities: 


games to be sponsored by this magazine? Yes_No_ 




My favorite videogame cartridges are: 



Please rate the following features in this issue from 1 (awful) to 10 


3. 



My favorite computer games are: 


3. 


My favorite coin-op games are: 


The article I would most like to read in an upcoming issue is: 


Don't want to mar your copy of 
Electronic Games? 

Feel free to photocopy this page. 






































CRIME 

tinued from page 7‘ 


In order to arrest the thief, the player's 
pawn must move on or next to the exact 
location where the thief is. Press the ar¬ 
rest button and enter the location of the 
thief in the scanner. Sirens signal the ar¬ 
rival of the police. If the guess is wrong, 
the thief gives the cops a raspberry. If cor¬ 
rect, but unsuccessful, there'll be some 
warning shots, and then the thief will 
laugh at the cops while escaping. A suc¬ 
cessful arrest ends with the police carting 
the criminal off to prison. The detective 
making the arrest collects the reward 
money from the bank. Then the game 
commences anew, with another crime to 
be solved. The first player to accumulate 
$2500 in rewared money is the winner. 

'Stop Thief has players pursue and 
capture a criminal right at the scene of 
the crime, when it is being committed. 
'Electronic Detective,' on the other 
hand,permits detectives to cross- 
examine suspects after the crime has 
been committed. There are 20 people 
together in the city. One is murdered, 
and the remaining 19 flee to different 
parts of the metropolis. The object is to 
question all suspects, compare their ali¬ 
bis, and determine who is guilty of the 

'Electronic Detective' uses a computer 
to help with these deliberations. Players 
choose between three difficulty levels, 
"Gumshoe" (easiest), "Sleuth" (med¬ 
ium), and "Master Detective" (the most 
difficult setting). After entering the 
desired level, choose the number of 
players (one to four). Then the computer 
fires two gun shots and plays a funeral 
dirge. The display window shows the 
victim's number and the location of the 
body. 

All players enter this information on 
their case fact sheets provided with the 
game. Then gamesters start grilling the 
remaining 19 characters to find the killer. 
To help, i.d. cards are provided for each 
character. Place the i.d. card of the sus¬ 
pect on the tray for this purpose on the 
game unit. Press 'suspect,' enter his 
number, and hit 'enter.' The computer 
will furnish the alibi; who he was with, 
and where he was at the time of the 
murder. The detective may also ask the 
suspect a private question without telling 
the other players what is asked or what 
answer is given. 


Players gather the information from 
each suspect and enter it onto the case 
fact sheets. Gradually, a picture emerges 
of the gender of the murderer, where the 
killer went afterward, and what weap¬ 
on was used. By cross-checking the ali¬ 
bis, the guilty party can be found. Then, 
in Agatha Christie fashion, the detective 
makes his accusation. If the sleuth is mis¬ 
taken, "no" flashes on the display board, 
and the player is out of the game. A cor- 

sound, while the display flashes the 
murderer's number and a "yes." 

Both 'Stop Thief' and 'Electronic 
Detective’ make interesting use of the 
computer. In 'Stop Thief,' the crook is ac¬ 
tually moving around during the game. 
Detectives are not dealing with a static 

criminal, who is all too capable of outwit¬ 
ting the law. Just when players think 
they have the felon, he moves to an¬ 
other spot, and the chase must begin 
anew. In 'Electronic Detective,' the com¬ 
puter handles the alibis of all 19 suspects, 
answering questions and providing in¬ 
formation which will ultimately lead to 
the arrest of the killer—players hope. In 
this case, though, the computer is also 
capable of fabrication. When the guilty 
suspect is questioned, he can lie in some 

In both cases, it would hardly be pos¬ 
sible to play such complicated scenarios 
without the help of computer tech¬ 
nology. Furthermore, and this must be 
unique for crime games, the computer 
makes it possible for these games to be 
played solitaire. Now everyone can be 
the good guy, and no one has to be 


COMPUTER 

PLAYLAND 

continued from page 57 


Meteoroids (Spectral Associ¬ 
ate/Color Computer/16K| finally lets 
owners of this newest of the microcom- 
puters join the legions of arcaders 
who've become devoted destroyers of 
space rocks over the last couple of years. 
It ought to be manna from heaven for 
those who have had to make do with 
the feeble games produced for this 
machine thus far. 

Considering the limitations of the x-y 
coordinate graphic system forced on the 


designer by the rasterscan technology of 
the usual computer monitor, movement 
on the hi-res playfield is very smooth and 
quite reminiscent of the coin-op which it 

Before the real action starts, it even 
shares the familiar monochromatic ap¬ 
pearance of Asteroids, too. Once one 
of the player's photon torpedoes scrags 
a meteoroid, however, the arcader will 
be attempting to dodge a splendid 
shower of multi-colored debris or face 
destruction. 

And if the player is hit by a meteroid, 
debris or a shot from the pesky alien in¬ 
vader, the whole screen lights up like a 
veritable rainbow. It is such moments 
that justify the designing of this game 
especially for the Color Computer. 

After loading the machine language 
cassette program, the program asks the 

cian"—and the level of difficulty desired, 
from 0 to 15. The scale refers not to the 
number and speed of the meteoroids, 
which are adequately challenging at all 
levels, but to the frequency of the alien 
invader's appearances. 

One major problem with the program 
is that it requires both joysticks. One 
is used to maneuver, accelerate and fire 
torpedoes, while the other must be em¬ 
ployed to aim and jump through 
hyperspace. Figuring out a way to con¬ 
veniently manipulate both sticks and 
press the two buttons while still main¬ 
taining enough concentratbn to dodge 
the meteoroids is quite a trick, indeed. 

When a large meteoroid is hit, it 
breaks up into two medium-size ones. 
When one of these is blasted, it divides 
into a pair of small ones. Scoring is 20 
points for the large rocks, 50 points for 
the mid-size ones and 100 points for the 
smallest. Destroying an alien craft counts 
1,000 points. Bonus ships, up to a max¬ 
imum of four, are earned each time the 
arcader tallies 10,000 points. 

Attaining high scores depends on a 
compromise between the player's skill at 
destroying the meteoroids and zapping 

When the arcader's four ships are fin¬ 
ally destroyed—inevitable with all 
games of this type, of course—the pro¬ 
gram's title page returns with a recap of 
the name, score and level of difficulty for 
the four best rounds in the play session 
underway. The computer then asks if 
the player would like to try another 

Defects aside, the answer more often 
than not is likely to be "yes." (Ross 
Chamberlain) j. 






Coming NEXT in 

electronic 

GnmE5 




Here Come the Lady Arcaders! 

corner barbershop.Times have changed. Today's female 
gamers can blast an asteroid or smash a space invader 
with the best of them. Meet the lady arcaders in next 

Videogame Outlook 1982 

Ifyou thought 1981 was fantastic, waittillyou hearabout 
the big plans the videogame companies are making for 
the next 12 months. 

Leaders of the Pac-(man) 

Can a game without spaceships, aliens and big explo¬ 
sions find happiness in the world of electronic arcading? 
Just ask the millions of players who have made Pac-Man 
and similar gobble games a huge success in both the 
home and coin-op fields. 

Slam Dunk! 

You don't have to be Moses Malone or Marques Johnson 
to be an all-star at electronic basketball. Next month, EG 
examines all the hoop simulations from hand-helds to 
deluxe computer programs. 

The Players Guide to 
Electronic Wargames 

From the battlefields of the ancient world to the planet- 
busting star wars of the far future, Electronic Games 
presents an in-depth report on the hot new military 
strategy games. 

There'll be plenty of other articles and features of 
interest to arcade addicts, plus these regular columns: 



★ Switch Onl 

★ Q&A 

★ Inside Gaming 

★ Arcade Spotlight 

★ Computer Playland 

★ Programmable Parar 

★ Stand-Alone Scene 


★ Readers Replay 

★ EG Hotline 

★ Strategy Session 

★ Insert Coin Here 

★ Passport to Adventure 

★ New Products 

★ Test Lab 




je of Electronic Games 


On Sale 

MARCH 14, 1982 














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they are not lost Permanently. 

People interested in helping out in any capacity. 

Please visit us at www.retromags.com 


tom these scans, nor do we offer anything 
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>s anyone selling releases from 
)t support them and dd let us know.